Harry Potter and the Guardians of Hogwarts
by Blazing-Auran
Summary: Harry's third year at Hogwarts, a time of worry as Sirius Black has escaped Azkaban, however when two mysterious people and a fifth house appear things are going to get thrown on their head. Full Summary Inside, Canon up to Third Year. AU, slight Molly/Dumbledore Bashing, Eventual Harry/Hermione Smart!Powerful!Grey!Harry. On Hiatus, pending re-write.
1. Prologue

**A/N: Here we go with my first fanfic, Obvious Disclaimer: I have/will never own Harry Potter it belongs to JK Rowling. However Thorne and Nova are my own OC's and will be in the majority of my works in one form or another.**

**Summary: **Harry Potter's third year, and a time for worry for many as Sirius Black has escaped. Harry is meant to be among these people worried as the supposed mass murderer is coming after him, however an odd sense of normality is all he can sense withing the castle of Hogwarts. However when two mysterious strangers arrive in the Great Hall, claiming to be from around the time of the Founders, and leaders of the fabled fifth house all chaos brakes loose as Harry and those around him find out just how much people have been playing with their lives. But can they trust these two strangers enough to actually break free?

**This is unbeta'd, mistakes may be made, especially with the SCUBA equipment it's been 5 months since I last touched any of it.**

Prologue

_Early August 1993, A Hidden Island in the Indian Ocean_

The Island rose out of the sea like the back of a gigantic sea monster, slowly climbing to an apex at the peak of the solitary hill and back down again into the sea. Atop the lone hill stood a house, which was hidden from muggle, or as the owners called them, mundane eyes. Indeed it could hardly be called a house with its central front and two wings each going some hundreds of feet back. Beneath the house were two sprawling layers of dungeons, and beneath that a cave system that linked back up to the Pacific ocean via an underwater cave mouth, it was through this mouth that two figures now approached the island, their SCUBA gear seemed to blend in with the background, even the tanks didn't gleam their normal silver nor the secondary mouth pieces show up as was usually required. Indeed, it would be seen as strange if any wizard looked upon the scene, as these two used a mundane method of underwater travel, instead of the charms and potions normally taken advantage of. But then again, these were no ordinary wizards, and being immortal or damn well near it wasn't the only difference.

Thorne looked bought his air gauge up so he could see it, head nodding as he saw he still had a quarter of the tank, about average for him after diving for 45 minutes. Stopping he turned around to Nova, sending the standard OK? Signal back to her, the forefinger and thumb making a circle and the other three fingers pointing upwards, seeing the signal returned Thorne moved onwards, letting out slow powerful kicks as he navigated the cave tunnels that got them back to where they had started off, 45 minutes before. After a couple of turns through the system Thorne stopped at the familiar wall, charmed red just to make sure that they didn't miss it. It also helped as it had a tracking charm which Thorne's compass had a hand pointing towards. With a quick look upwards Thorne started the slow ascent, making sure to pressurize every metre as he had been trained to do all that time ago. Coming up the last few feet Thorne was almost glad as he recognized the familiar signs of both the flat side of the cave floor where he had jumped in, and the presence of one of his faithful House Elves. Sitting up on the ledge Thorne removed his mask, regulator and snorkel before carefully looking toward the nearest House Elf, nodding his head as a greeting. "Good dive Master Thorne?" the elderly House Elf asked.

"Very good thank you Fronce" Thorne replied, having now removed the tank from his back as well, along with the BCD, Bouyancy Control Device, allowing Fronce to take care of it, as Nova came up out of the water as well, she was soon talking to Huxan. Thorne looked as Fronce levitated the tank over to where it would be refilled before going to clean the equipment he had, allowing Thorne to remove the flippers, weight belt before Fronce returned, helping him with getting out of the wetsuit.

Now as Thorne stepped away from the remaining gear he looked like any normal young adult, at 6 foot exactly his frame was fairly thing although most of it was bulked out with some muscle, showing off the fact that he exercised regularly, the black of his hair seemed to almost glisten from the salt water, as Thorne let it dry naturally, rather than opting for quick spell most wizards used. Slipping on a light pair of sandals Thorne started up the set of steps hewn out of the rock face before turning around, waiting for Nova to catch up. "So sis, exactly how many photos did you take with that thing" he pointed to the underwater camera on Nova's wrist, "Or did you forget that we can use our pensive for exactly that whenever we want."

Nova stopped on the first step, face palming before retorting "Well I didn't see you telling me to stop, thank you very much" slapping Thorne on the arm before carrying on, rushing past him, allowing Thorne to look at the young women, who was his twin sister. Unlike Thorne, Nova's dirty blonde hair almost clashed with the brown eyes that the two of them shared, she was slightly shorter than Thorne at 5 foot 8, but she was more bulky, and had proven often enough to people that it was muscle and not fat. "Damn girl" Thorne said quietly in response before continuing up, coming to the first landing area he stopped, looking back down to the water where he had come up, sighing briefly as he saw how calm it was, before looking around the landing area itself. This was as far up as mundane people could come, the wards hiding the next set of stairs up, indeed hiding them from any other wizards as well unless they were keyed to the wards, and that was precious few people nowadays. Moving on up the stairs Thorne felt the magic tingle as he stepped through the wards, noticing him as the master of the house, continuing up the stairs Thorne slowed as they started to spiral, running his hand over the walls as the natural bumps were run over by his hand, snapping out of his private thoughts Thorne continued upwards to the next landing area, a thick metal door was the only way off here, and Thorne didn't want ot go through there right at this moment, although it held nothing for the moment, that floor was made of a number of cells in case they were needed to hold either werewolves during the full moon or prisoners during the war. The next floor up was for the House Elves, and the one after that held the pantries, and wine cellars, although wine wasn't the only alcohol stored there, as everything from Lager to Fire whiskey was also present for the household. The next floor up was the last one underground, and led through to the largest cavern in the series of caves, inaccessible from any other way through wards and stone it was the main hub for Thorne and Nova's work, however today was a day off for them, a luxury they could barely afford, given their prestigious position in their line of work, every country from the ICW knew of them, and many had frequent contact with the twins. The twins, or as they were known, the Guardians even owned properties in ten of these countries, excluding India, who had initially owned the Island they now used as a main base. Sitting halfway between the British Indian Ocean Territory and the Cocos Islands Guardian Island, as it was known, was one of the best kept secrets to have been held in the world, and that didn't include the Fidilus Charm that was part of the wards.

It was Nova's calls that bought Thorne out of his thoughts this time, and noticing the slight alarm in her voice he sprinted up the rest of the stairs two at a time before coming off at the ground floor, wandlessly casting a locator charm he sprinted into the main dining room where Nova was holding a parley with four animal, a copy of one of the many newspapers they got was sitting on the table. Noticing the four animals Thorne let out a sigh of relief, the alarm wasn't a bad one, instead it was merely due to the fact of exactly who was calling them, it had been a long time since they had returned to Britain, their home country, and indeed it had been even longer since they had been called to their initial home itself. Thorne cleared his throat, both announcing his presence and wish to speak, "Well, it looks like we're returning back to the beginning for this one, I wonder how much Hogwarts has changed since we last stalked the halls." Nova nodded before continuing, "Thank you mentors, we will go and guard, and set right what has been made wrong. For no-one shall stop us, not all the Dark Lords of history combined, not even…"

)))))(((((

"Albus Percival Dumbledore" Molly Weasley shouted "You know what this could mean to all our plans. I thought he was meant to be unable to ruin anything." With that Molly threw the latest copy of the Daily Prophet towards the headmaster, the title speaking for itself.

'_**SIRIUS BLACK ESCAPES AZKABAN'**_

Dumbledore looked back at Molly raising a singular eyebrow, "Now we both know that it is highly unlikely to change our plans, I will write to the Minister, expressing high concern that Harry will not be safe enough here at Hogwarts without some extra help from the Ministry, he'll provide it of course, and allow our plan to continue, Sirius may be mad but he won't be able to get through to Harry if we have enough Aurors to stop him. Besides it is most imperative you keep up the love potions, if they are brewed well enough and as often as needed then we will have no concern, Harry will want to stay with you and Ginny because of his love for her." Dumbledore's calming voice and reasoning calmed Molly down enough to not look quite so angry, at the time's she was on full blast, even Dumbledore was afraid of her. "Ok, the administrations will continue, but if this plan slips up I'll personally make sure you get your comeuppance" Molly threatened, "Now if you'll excuse me I'll return to the Burrow, my children must not assume anything, and I don't particularly want to Obliviate them."

"Understood" Dumbledore replied, breathing out a sigh of relief as the Weasley matriarch left his office via the floo. Looking towards Fawkes he saw the Phoenix shake its head, as if disapproving of his actions, but Dumbledore dismissed it until the Phoenix flame travelled away, leaving a no sign of it being there seconds before, nor of where it travelled to.

**A/N: Well there's the Prologue, reviews would be nice but not essential and Chapter 1 will be out in the next couple of days hopefully.  
I know we haven't met Harry yet, however I believe getting used to Thorne and Nova will be important for the storyline, and they will sink into the background as the story progresses so that Harry can be the main character he is.**


	2. Chapter 1: Glorious Arrival

**A/N: Hey Here's the next Chapter, and we get into Hogwarts and Harry's POV  
Disclaimed still applies, It's still JK Rowlings and I'm not making any money from this.  
To happylady: Thanks for the first review and I hope you continue to enjoy it.  
**

__**Chapter 1**

_Early September 1993, Guardian Island_

Thorne looked across at Nova, the two now stood side by side, preparing to move out to their new target, gone were the T-shirts and shorts from their holidays during the summer, instead they now wore long flowing dark grey cloaks, underneath was a layer of armour, basilisk skin woven onto thick padded leather armour, with all the properties of a bulletproof vest, the armour itself was designed to at least lessen all damage taken from any type of attack, mundane or magical that could be thrown at the two of them, and covered their torso, arms and legs. The cloaks hood had inbuilt magical wards to protect their identity, but very little armour in comparison to the rest of their body whilst their basilisk hide boots saw that their feet were well protected as well. On their backs were the main tools of their trade, for Thorne, two Viking swords that he was able to duel wield with ease, as ages of practice and battle would allow, Nova on the other hand wielded a single Wakizashi and Heater Shield in an interesting combination of Japanese and European weaponry that nonetheless could devastate an entire battlefield. Strapped to their waists were pistols, one on each side which both Thorne and Nova were easily able to duel wield.

The final weapons that the twins had were their wands. The wands were both 10 inches long, the cores the same, a feather from Griffin, mixed with the venom of a Basilisk, the same Basilisk that provided them with their armour in fact, mixed with the blood of the owner. What truly set the wands apart though was the wood used, crafted from the trunks of an English Oak and a Tea Tree.

As the final checks were made Thorne smirked, their plan would undoubtedly work, especially as they were technically on par with the Founders level of authority in Hogwarts, meaning that only they or the heirs, if indeed there were any and records showed there were, could bypass the schools apparation and portkey wards. Suddenly a flash of flame burst into the room, and Nova raised an arm as Fawkes landed on it. The phoenix had been making regular trips to the twins ever since they had decided to return to Hogwarts, and through the phoenix's memories and calls, which the twins could just about understand the bird. Unfortunately for them they had learned just how much had changed in the school. Still this news was what had convinced them to put together this plan, to easily wow the school onto their side, and from there it would be easy to coerce any of the teachers.

Nova looked at Fawkes as he told her of the latest happenings to Hogwarts and its students, Nova listened patiently, especially interested in one Harry Potter.

_Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

It hadn't been the best summer for Harry, what with the 'accidents' with Aunt Marge and the trouble it had caused, and not just for him. But also as the Weasley's, the ones whom he could usually rely on to keep him going almost teased him with the news of going to Egypt. If only he was as free as they were to do what he wanted to do, but that was a mindset for another day he thought as his attention was bought back to the present. He was sitting in the Great Hall, as always at the start of term, surrounded by Hermione and the two youngest Weasley's, Fred and George were further up the table, probably pranking a second year with the help of one or two of their friends, whilst Neville was nearby. It was good times to be in the presence of friends, even if the Dementors on the train had been upsetting to say the least, but something good had come out of that too, as Harry had now met a link to his past and his parent in Remus Lupin. Looking at the doors where the nervous First-years would soon be coming through to be sorted Harry smiled again. 'Good times ahead' he thought, not knowing how different things were about to be.

The First years were bought into the hall, all eager to get sorted, some had looks of panic in their eyes as they realized the scope of their situation, both for what it meant for their next seven years, and what just how many people they would walk the halls with, others were filled with courage as they happily anticipated which house they would go to, whilst more, especially those with relatives that were either in the Hogwarts already, or had left the school looked weirdly calm, as they realized that they didn't really have to wrestle a troll or anything as silly as that.

The school held its breath, as one turning to the sorting hat to see what it would say this year, although it mainly effected the first years the rest of the school always marvelled at what it could come up with. This year however none, not even the great headmaster himself could of predicted the words that the Sorting Hat would speak, nor the surprise and changes it would bring.

"_I am a poor Sorting Hat  
__I've seen days from better years  
__I've sorted students left and right  
__I've sorted many fears_

_But now I have a different role  
__Of that you can be sure  
__For things have started up again  
__And Traditions must endure._

_For Normal eyes see just four  
__Yet I saw five in all  
__The time for unity has become  
__My yearning party call_

_To Gryffindor the brave in Heart  
__As Courage will dictate  
__They charge forwards through the years  
__The first to challenge fate_

_To Slytherin the ones who trick  
__And never play too fair  
__The cunning nature and deceit  
__Though recent yet to flare_

_To Hugglepuff the loyal hearts  
__Who stand as one and all.  
__Though many claim to gain as much  
__It is these who truly answer their call_

_To Ravenclaw come the brains  
__The intelligence to choose  
__But pure power is less than known  
__For brawn is born to lose_

_And finally the fifth house  
__Its stands on equal ground  
__Its name and purpose hidden through the years  
__Yet recently been found_

_For I am here to warn you  
__Those who have all in equal measure  
__This fifth house shall not split you up  
__As you are to find at your leisure_

_As none be chosen 'til next time  
__I feel it best to warn  
__For ever those who cross that line  
__Will truly be reborn_

_But onwards now to victory  
__Hogwarts will rise anew  
__Let learning flourish and bonds re-form  
__And reward the chosen few"_

After a stunned silence the sorting began, and true to its word the Sorting Hat did not mention this fifth house as it sorted the thirty or so first years, as the last student, a "Williams Jessica" took her seat in Hufflepuff. Dumbledore stood up to issue the beginning of the feast, however before the words could leave his mouth the giant doors to the Great Hall were flung open, and two figures, Thorne and Nova walked into the room, many students paled as they recognized the weapons upon the backs of the Guardians, and many more paled when Thorne lifted his face, the cloak and it's wards allowing them only to see a shadowy outline of his face. "My my, Hogwarts really has let itself down these days" Thorne commented, looking around. Purposefully ignoring the stare Dumbledore was giving him, just to try and tick him off a bit more. Looking around Thorne and Nova both noticed some students, most they'd speak to later and only one or two they wanted to speak to now. None more so than Harry Potter however, but like with all things it could wait until later. After a couple more minutes of Thorne and Nova avoiding Dumbledore's gaze the Headmaster spoke out "And who are you two to trespass these halls?"

"Ah you're the Headmaster then" Thorne replied, smirking at the fury now clearly showing on the Headmasters face, "My name is Thorne and this is my twin sister Nova, we are the Guardians, Hogwarts and herself called us here once again to protect these walls from those outside." Nova was trying to hold back her laughter as the hardest bit of their plan had not only been acheived but Dumbledore had done his part perfectly as well, almost like he knew he was being scripted.

"I see" Dumbledore replied, calming himself a bit, "So how old are you? We'll fit you into a house right after you're sorted."

"Oh Albus thank you for the compliment" Nova replied, "However we are simply too old to be sorted, our physical appearances merely hide our true age."

"I see" Dumbledore repeated, "Then what position would you fill if you are to be of use here?" He honestly wanted to get rid of the two, but he felt that trying to do so was a very bad idea, and right about now Dumbledore didn't want two more enemies, no he'd rather have two more chess pieces to control, especially if they were as old as they claimed.

"Well seeing as under Hogwarts bylaw 576 ghosts are unable to teach classes I believe you have a free position for History of Magic" Thorne calmly answered as the ghostly Professor Binns was thrown out of his seat, and the Great Hall.

Dumbledore sighed, "Very well then I might as well make all the announcements now instead of after the feast for teaching positions." Standing up to his full height Dumbledore turned his full attention to the hall as Thorne and Nova moved to sit at the teachers table. Nova stole the seat that Binns had vacated sticking her tongue out playfully at Thorne as he conjured his own chair from outside the Hall.

"Right then" Dumbledore started, "After this interesting introduction I would like to introduce Professors Thorne and Nova as the new History of Magic teachers, and Professor Lupin as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor." The hall erupted into cheers, although some groaned as they realized they'd lost prime sleeping time with the loss of Professor Binns, but the replacements seemed interesting.

"If I may Headmaster" Thorne said as the cheering died down, given the nod he continued "Don't worry I'll make this quick, however Lady Hogwarts made it clear to me that the heirs of all four founders sit with us tonight." Thorne stopped to let the gasping and the chattering die down a bit, "Now may I ask Susan Bones and Harry Potter to talk to me after the feast is over" Thorne was sure his last words were barely heard as the whole hall, including the teachers table burst into frantic whispering, discussing what they had just heard before the Feast began with Dumbledore's flick of his wand, it seemed even he was stunned into silence at the truth.

**A/N: Originally planned to get all of the Feast done in one chapter but I've kept coming up with ideas so I split it in two. Oh and don't worry Harry and Susan will probably not end up being a couple, Hermione is still the one for our hero, even if he doesn't know it yet.** **Still unsure on the second girl, or if indeed there will be a second girl. **

**Anyways Please Rate and Review, constructive criticism more than welcome, flames not so much.**


	3. Chapter 2: Seeing is Revealing

**A/N: thanks for the reviews guys. Now onto this chapter, in which a lot of words are spoken, and things are revealed.**

**Chapter 2**  
_Hogwarts September 1993_

The feast was over with a lot more silence than it had begun, Dumbledore stood up once again, this time to give out the usual announcements for the year, including some that weren't standard, "Right, now this year due to the escape of convicted criminal Sirius Black the Ministry have put Dementors as defences around the school to protect us, do not provoke them if you want to keep your life" Dumbledore muttered under his breath "Despite the fact I expressly asked for Aurors" after this however none of the hall heard the words, thankfully for him. "Also remember no fighting in the corridors, with or without magic, Fanged Frisbees and other items are now banned, look at the full list on Mr Filch's door for more details, and may I remind you that to have a fun and safe year this year. Now if Prefects will lead the first years to their dorms and remember the curfew good night." Stepping down Dumbledore walked over to where Thorne and Nova were sitting, "I would like to speak to you two in private after your meeting with Mr Potter and Miss Bones, the password for my office is 'Milky Way'."

Thorne nodded in reply as his eyes scanned the room as the students left. One Ravenclaw caught his attention, but he lost her in the crowd as he walked up to where Harry Potter now stood as Nova went to get Susan. "Harry Potter, it is a wonder to see you" Thorne said smiling, anticipating the question that Harry would ask next Thorne spoke quickly, "Whilst I know of your Boy-Who-Lived persona and don't get me wrong fame isn't all that bad, I also know there is a Harry Potter beneath it, and it is he I would like to talk to tonight, come we'll speak in my office, it can't of changed place since last time I was here."

)))))(((((

Five minutes later Thorne and Nova were sat opposite Susan and Harry in the History of Magic office, Fronce had done a quick tidy of it once he had learnt that was their's and was preparing the staff quarters that the twins were to share. "Now, Harry I'll start with you first as this will probably be more of a shock for you. Hogwarts, and indeed we recognize you as Harry Potter, Descendant of Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw and by rights of conquest Salazar Slytherin. Whilst you Miss Bones are the Descendant of Helga Hufflepuff." Thorne stopped for a moment for it to settle in before Nova continued, "Now as to how we know this, all we will say for now is that we are bound to this castle, and we were bound to the Founders themselves, meaning we know exactly who their heirs are. Now despite the fact we've been out of the country for all this time we also know who you are, along with the majority of the population of the school, we know of everything you both have been through, and whilst this is by no means an attempt to get you two together I do suggest you get to know each other as friends as you will have certain roles as heir to the Founders once you come of age."

The two students in front of the seemed in complete shock, Susan was able to nod her head whilst Harry took a minute or two longer to register everything, and only then did he make a rather audible gulping sound. "Not that I want to disagree" Harry started "But are you sure you've got the right person here and what do you mean by 'right of conquest'?" Thorne chuckled "Yes we definitely have the right person here Harry James Potter unless you are lying about who you are. However by 'right of conquest' we are of course referring to the events that gave you your scar, which on a coincidental note I would quite like to look at later." Thorne coughed before continuing "anyway, Lord Voldemort was the last heir of Slytherin, and when you beat him all those years ago you gained his title as he died fighting you, the best saying for this is 'To the victor goes the spoils' and that is exactly what happened here." Thorne explained carefully.

Leaning back in his chair Thorne carefully sent out a couple of tendrils of thought into Harry's mind, exploring around a little, skirting the memories, Thorne respected Harry and from what he had heard Harry's past hadn't been a shining example of a perfect childhood, instead he moved deeper into Harry himself, now looking at his Magical Core, although he was unable to do anything apart from look at it, at least for now he already recognized several things that were wrong, and strangely so. The look of confusion on Thorne's face alerted Harry that all was not as it seemed and he felt Thorne's presence in his own mind, using his natural strength to force Thorne out, who gave no resistance, he hadn't been expecting it and he didn't want to defend it either.

"WHAT WERE YOU DOING WITH MY MIND!" Harry shouted out enraged at the professor, whipping his wand out, completely forgetting for that moment that he was indeed talking to a professor and the presence of Susan and Nova in the office. Recovering quickly and thankful Harry hadn't tried to actually retaliate and run into his own natural defences Thorne quickly began to explain "Ok, calm it, I went too deep and you realized I'm sorry." Thorne said quickly, noting that the look of outrage that was set on Harry's face a few moments ago now had seeds of confusion setting in. "Right Ok, now I know you're not going to hex me to hell and back I'll explain. " Thorne started, "First things first, your scar. To put it simply it interested me, not in how you got it, but why and how it's still there." Seeing Harry nod he continued "Right, from my extensive knowledge, whilst most 'Dark Arts' cause scarring none in all my experience have left such a scar as yours, most are hardly recognizable so that breeds two questions for me. One what happened to make you so different? And two, why and how it affects you now?"

Thorne lent back in his chair, thinking through his thoughts as he continued. "Now, to answer these questions is difficult without direct answers, and the only way I could get that is from your memories and your core. Memory wise, let's just say I know you don't want to relive it as you have enough times correct?" Harry nodded silently, not showing any other signs of communication since his outburst, in fact the whole room was silent apart from Thorne, as Nova and Susan were listening in as well. "Right so from what I could feel the scar was giving off its own magical signature, one that is definitely not your own, who's I don't know but I would bet it's Voldemorts." Noticing Susan and Harry flinch at the name Thorne sighed" Alright let's use his real name Tom then. Now, if it were Tom's magical signature I have no idea how exactly this happened." Thorne was lying here, he knew exactly what it meant, however the circumstances from when it had happened didn't match the correct criteria, there was no ritual as was normal for Horcrux's. Blinking away his thoughts Thorne carried on. " Now moving onwards to my previous second question also ties into what I was looking at to do with your core and how you realized something was up. There's no easy way to put this Harry, but for the past two years at Hogwarts you've been working at 25% of your magical and academical potential. This has been caused by a magical block on your core, most parents put these on their children when they are younger to protect against bursts of accidental magic, however they are broken by the time they start to learn magic, yours Harry have never been broken, cutting you down by 50%." Noticing Harry's look of confusion when the numbers didn't add up Thorne explained, "The other 25% of your magic seems to be fighting the magical signature in your scar, meaning that it is more than likely that the magic in the scar is Voldemorts rather than your mothers or someone else trying to be beneficial. Now here's the hardest part Harry" Thorne stopped, indicating to Nova to take Susan out of the office for this bit, mouthing 'it's safer this way' to her as she escorted the Hufflepuff out of the office for a few minutes. "Now Harry, the person who put the magical block on your core left behind their own magical signature, and unfortunately, it's Dumbledore's." Thorne raised an eyebrow as Harry's reaction was a lot less than he anticipated, instead of the full blown hurricane of anger flying around the office instead Harry face briefly showed an expression of pure hatred before calm set in "But why would he do that sir?" he asked calmly.

"Ah" Thorne's reply was at first, "I see you've been caught in the web well and truly Harry" Thorne stated next trying to find a way to let Harry down gently. "Let's just say that despite Albus Dumbledore's tremendous actions against Grindlewald he isn't exactly the champion of light he makes himself out to be. First he never killed Grindlewald, instead he imprisoned him in a fairly large cell in Nurmengard, Grindlewald's fortress. Dumbledore has also been almost caught in several less favourable positions and places throughout the years, even being the potential cause of his own sisters death." Thorne revealed, making Harry's eyebrows shoot upwards as he learnt more about the Headmaster, "In fact it is a little known fact that without Dumbledore's 'manipulations' it is highly unlikely there would ever be a Voldemort, you are simply the second guinea pig in his plans Harry, he's hoping to use you to eradicate his first failings with Tom before claiming all of your glory and letting you die in a gutter penniless. Trust me, I've fought against manipulators like him for almost a millennium." Thorne finished, hoping to open Harry's eyes, even just a little bit.

"Proof" that was Harry's sole response, "Prove to me that he is this great manipulator and I'll believe you, until then our business is done." As Harry got up to move out Thorne wracked his mind, along with a few of the memories he may of 'seen' in Harry's mind. "You are the proof Harry." Thorne said exasperated, "Look at you, you're the last Potter, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw by birth you should have been told you were Heir of those families when you were 11, ask any pureblood you meet, hell even ask Susan outside when she found out she was the heir to the Bones and Hufflepuff families Harry, or why not ask Neville, as to when he was officially told he was heir to the Longbottom Family. The truth is in front of you but you dismiss it as lies because seemingly Dumbledore knows everything. Heck I'm almost 900 years older than Dumbledore and I don't know half the things in the world. "

Harry turned around from where he had walked during Thorne's speech. He was but three steps from the door but something nagged inside him to continue to listen to Thorne, despite the fact that this man had invaded his thoughts there was an air of trusting about him. "Ok so what else then, that doesn't prove everything."

"You're right it doesn't" Thorne answered back, now standing up, but not moving from behind the desk that was there. "Next point, this also brings into account a questionable act by a mother of a friend of yours and the ancient alliance between the Dumbledore and Prewitt lines. Molly Weasley nee Prewitt works for Dumbledore and can't pull her own head out of his arse sometimes. Consider this Harry, why would a women with 7 magical children, 5 of whom had already gone to Hogwarts, calculating to at that point a total of almost ten years of going to Hogwarts via the Hogwarts express stand in the middle of Muggle Kings Cross and shout at the top her voice about a Magical platform that would make her seem like a madwoman in front of hundreds of people, just right where you were standing." It's strange is it not?" Thorne asked before smiling, "And now look, four of the people you trust most seem to be her children. Really really strange if you think about it." Thorne smirked, "And you don't socialize outside your house, and why is that? Because the Weasley's don't think it's a good idea. You do know not all Slytherins are dark and evil bastards set to join with Tom do you? Hell Salazar himself wasn't that evil, cunning and power hungry yes, evil absolutely not. And don't even start on his whole 'hating muggleborns' thing, cos it's just a legend. But anyway we'll cover that in more detail in our History Classes." Thorne moved towards where Harry was now, the boy had taken a few steps back towards the seat, ready to listen again, however Thorne stopped him halfway, putting both hands on the Harry's shaking shoulders, whether due to grief or anger he could not tell but it seemed like the right thing to do.

"Now the final point I want to make is one that will hurt you the most, and along with that it will give you hope in the future. The next point is the Dursleys. Harry, Dumbledore has known about the abuse they put you through and for ten years did nothing, he had Mrs Figgs watching from down the road every day, she's a squib you know. And then your Hogwarts letter, it knew exactly where you lived, however he never changed anything about that, and even now, it's hardly a comfortable life." Thorne noted all the signs and took three steps back before Harry exploded in anger.

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Outside Nova heard the muffled cries of outrage despite the silencing charms on the office, and patting Susan on the shoulder she started directing the Hufflepuff towards the common room. "Now Susan, I want you to do a favour for me, watch out for Harry these next few days, you're going to be called upon a lot as the heirs to the founders and Harry needs to know and trust you, however don't go to him as a friend and try to get romantically involved, that won't work he's already got his eye on someone close to him, no go to him as a sister, he needs all the family he can get right now." Nova finished, looking at Susan as the stairs they were standing on started moving, taking them down to the third floor. "Yes Professor" Susan replied, nodding her head, "Can I ask something else though, it's not related completely" seeing the nod of Nova's head she continued, "How did you know our names and what our titles were, despite never being here before?"

Nova smiled 'I like this girl' "Ah Susan, therein lies a secret, but one I'm willing to tell you. In Hogwarts there is a book that writes down the names of every magical child born in Britain, it lists there name, so for you it's Susan Amelia Bones, it then lists their bloodline so for you it's Bones, Hugglepuff, it the lists the house you're sorted into. Each is written down when it becomes of knowledge, however there is another copy of this book with another column that is written in, it is this copy that is held underground under our manor on Guardian Island, the final column in there is the direct recording of the talk that goes on in every persons mind when the Sorting Hat sorts you. Don't worry, it's censored and we hardly ever use it, however as Guardians we are entitled to it, the one in Hogwarts did the same however it could only be read by us or the founders until the 1500's I believe when it was wiped off of the book entirely."

"Oh OK" Susan replied, a bit quieter now than she had been, more subdued Nova thought, as she searched for the appropriate answer to one of the inevitable questions that Susan would ask. However the one that was asked took her by surprise "So how do you know the founders?"

**A/N: Well there you go, I tried to make Harry slowly turn away from Dumbledore, but that took too long for everything else to work, so here he turns rather quickly, but not without a struggle. Next time Thorne and Dumbledore go head to head, and Nova reveals a bit more about the Guardians, along with a chance meeting with a Ravenclaw who's going to make a big difference in this. ****I also realize that I'm using a couple of well worn cliche's, and I'm aware of that, however I will be trying to avoid using too many of them.**


	4. Chapter 3: Second Sorting

**A/N: Hey guys, thanks for all the reviews, I'm trying to take them on board and keep this going strong, I'm also trying to make longer chapters, but I'm still working on that one. Standard Disclaimer as always, I don't own this nor am I set to make any money out of this.**

**Chapter 3**

_Hogwarts. Wednesday 1st September 1993_

It took a good few minutes, but Thorne was able to carry Harry down, the explosion he'd expected had happened and a few things in his office hadn't survived, not that there was a lot of stuff in there mostly things Professor Binns had left behind that Fronce hadn't taken down yet. "Harry" Thorne said, bringing both people in the room back out of their thoughts, "Harry, stay calm, don't reveal anything just yet, this is a chess game that Dumbledore is playing and we need to keep things hidden up our sleeves, as you are an heir to the founders I am sworn to protect you, just as much as I am sworn to protect Hogwarts, now listen carefully, tomorrow hopefully a resorting is going to occur, this will allow people to join the Guardian house and I strongly suggest you step forward to take part in it, by doing so we can protect you and train you, understand?" Harry nodded and Thorne let out a sigh of relief, another part of his own plan had fallen into place, and whilst he was nowhere near the manipulative person Dumbledore was Thorne was still a player in the game and as such he was having to move the pieces very carefully. "Ok so I'll take you back to the common rooms and see you tomorrow at Breakfast OK?" Thorne said before shepherding Harry out of the door, not waiting for an answer.

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"So how do you know the founders?"

Nova stopped in her tracks at the question, causing Susan to stop and turn to look at the older woman , her eyes demanding an answer. "Ok, it's complicated but understand there are ways of people being immortal, most of them aren't very nice, take Horcrux's, you split you soul, putting it into an object or a human, but that requires a correct ritual and a sacrifice of an innocent, or you can drain a Familiar bond, literally using your familiar to keep you immortal, so long as the familiar lasts of course." Nova stopped, "Both of those ways are painful to do and the way Thorne and I have achieved our state of 'immortality' is nowhere near as dark as that, although it is rather strange. But this is going off topic, and I'm sure we will explain at a later date. However the honest answer I can give at the moment is that we lived alongside them, do not ask any more questions however, as that'd be giving you an edge in our lesson plan. That is unless you've already covered the founders?"

Susan shook her head "No we've only covered Goblin Rebellions so far"

"Ah poor you" Nova replied, "They aren't particularly interesting to do, and they're fairly biased towards the wizards side, but anyway." Nova continued walking, "Come on, we're almost there. I'll give you one more clue for tomorrow Susan, apply yourself at Breakfast tomorrow, don't expect anything as heir to the founders, but we will accept you with the others." Finding themselves at the entrance to the Hufflepuff Common room Nova bade Susan good night, leaving the girl to ponder on the words Nova had spoken, before she moved off to the Headmasters office.

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Thorne met up with Nova after the two had delivered their charges to their common rooms, unsure what would happen inside the rooms with the news now out, but that was temporarily out of their hands. Now though they had to speak with Professor Dumbledore. Being the more cautious one Thorne shielded both their minds early, just in case of a mind attack that would mean they aided Dumbledore in his manipulations rather than stopped them.

Repeating the password to the gargoyle Thorne moved up the stairs to where Dumbledore sat behind his desk, standing up the Headmaster welcomed them, his grandfatherly figure and twinkle in his eye all but lost to the cold exteriors of the twins. "Aah welcome, come sit yourself down. The two of you most intrigue me."

"Oh" Thorne replied "and in which way is that? We can answer some questions now, other perhaps later and others will probably not be answered unless we can trust you like a brother. And no offence Headmaster, but that will take a long time."

"Of course I understand" Dumbledore replied, "My first question is how are you so ancient, yet you look so young. I can tell you're telling the truths when you say you've met the Founders yet you look no more than the peak age of a wizard."

"And there lies part of your answer." Nova replied this time, "Tell me Headmaster, what do you know of Greek myths and the Hunters of Artemis?"

"I know what most people do, they are a group of girls who serve the goddess Artemis and are in the eternal hunt, they do not age and can only die in battle."

"Mostly true, however they do not have to participate in the Hunt, or rather I was a special exception." Nova replied, "They also do age but they will always look at their peak age, and mine was 30. And before you ask about Thorne, I'll just say that are twin bond is very strong, we can almost talk to each other telepathically."

"I see" was Dumbledore's reply, and I take it you were visited by the goddess on one of your travels?"

"Yes" Thorne replied, "It was around 1100, we were in the Byzantine Empire for a small period then, and let's just say we got Artemis out of a tricky spot with a whole load of werewolves. It was her way of thanks."

"Thank you for divulging in me that information" Dumbledore replied, "Now, my next question is more academic. What are you planning on teaching?"

"Well seeing as we've had little time to actually think about it" Thorne replied "I think we will stick with what we know best. A history of the Founders, from when they met up to when they set up Hogwarts onwards, probably something on The Purge of 1490, but I think mainly the history of Hogwarts and the British Isles, if that is OK with you?"

"Certainly" Dumbledore replied, "I wouldn't mind being in a couple of your lessons myself, I have a feeling you would be able to provide a unique insight into Hogwarts and its history."

"You are more than welcome Headmaster." Nova replied. "Now we have a request that we would like to run through with you. You see as our arrivals and the Sorting Hat pronounced there's a fifth house now in Hogwarts, and we'd like to be the head of it, as is our right as the two Guardians who set it up and so with all houses we'd like students in it."

"I see." Dumbledore replied, thinking for a few moments "What exactly are the requirements for the Guardian House? And who would you say should be re-sorted?"

"The requirements are fairly simple" Thorne replied "Balance, someone who balances two or more of the qualities any house asks for can be chosen to be in the Guardian House. We would say that Fourth Years and below would be re-sorted this time, but only if they choose to, as such we would like to suggest tomorrow breakfast to do this, we would talk to the students first so they knew what they were getting into of course, we would also then issue them an extra lesson of sorts that would potentially allow them to gain a 'Guardian Ability' as we call it, a mastery perfection over a single charm or spell, for example my guardian Ability is the Protego spell, I can use it in almost any capacity to protect me against almost anything, including mind attacks, so don't even try it." Thorne added on the last part as an afterthought, knowing that Dumbledore was a Legilmens.

"OK" Dumbledore replied, "But why Fourth years and below and why can this class only be taken by those in the Guardian house? Surely it would be better to open it to everyone?"

"Unfortunately you're wrong there Headmaster" Thorne replied, seeing the manipulations starting to come now, "We would offer it to fourth year and below purely because it takes a while to manifest this ability" Thorne stopped, clearing his throat allowing Nova to continue, "And the whole point of the fact that it is only taught to the Guardian House is because you need a mental balance to work this ability, hence why only the Guardian House can use it."

Dumbledore leaned forwards in his chair and started to chuckle "It seems to me like you're building an army with this."

"Oh and you're not building a weapon out of Harry Potter are you sir?" Thorne retorted back.

Dumbledore leaned back into his chair, beaten by Thorne this time, "No matter" he said, deciding to leave the issue for the time being, "I believe that it would be acceptable, of course we'd have to adjust the timetables of everyone who was re-sorted, but I believe that the House Points can start flowing, and a Quidditch team can be created for the extra-curricular side. Very well then, I will bring the sorting hat down tomorrow for Breakfast." _'This should be interesting' _Dumbledore thought '_But no matter he may of won this round, but there is still a battle to be fought here and a war of wills to be won.'_

After being dismissed Thorne and Nova headed back to their staff quarters, about halfway there Nova gave up the pretence of being all strict and everything and started chuckling, casting a Thorne looked at her, slightly confused as to what was going on. In reply Nova burst into laughter before controlling herself, "Really, was Hunters of Artemis the best you could come up with? Do you actually believe that Dumbledore believed it?"

Thorne shrugged, "Well it's better than your usual Twin-Bond act. Anyway it makes more sense so I don't see why Dumbledore wouldn't believe it, especially when they seem to believe in every type of god out there."

Nova smirked before nodding, realizing that Thorne had at least thrown Dumbledore off the right tracks, "Well at least there are no records on us since 1490 so he can't try and find anything put about us since before then."

Thorne nodded, "Well the secrets safe for now, but I'm going to bet he's going to try again."

"Ten Galleons?" Nova questioned the amount, although that was the normal amount they put forwards for a fun bet like this.

"As always" Thorne replied, as the two shook on it before continuing along down the hallway to where they'd rest for the night.

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_Breakfast, the next morning_

Su Li was one of the last Ravenclaws into the Great Hall that breakfast time, it was the first time in her three years at Hogwarts that all students had been told to be at Breakfast for a particular time and there were many rumours flying around about it. The fact that the sorting hat was on its usual stool in the Great Hall didn't help the rumours and many speculated that the first years had been wrongly sorted. Su however felt that it had something to do with the Guardian House, as the fifth house had been called, she'd owled her parents last night as she remembered that somewhere in the family history the name The Guardians had appeared before. The Li's had not always been from England and in fact had only moved there from china three generations ago when the government became stricter on witches and wizards in the country. At a single flick of the wand from Albus Dumbledore the entire hall fell into silence, every snippet of chattering had stopped, and every face was turned to the front of the hall.

"Students" Dumbledore started "After a mysterious turn of events last night that led to our new History of Magic professors appearing a fifth house has been opened up, I'll leave it to Professor Thorne as joint head of this house to explain to you what is happening today in terms of this new house." This caused the mutterings again to commence and this time it was Professor Thorne who was now standing up to silence the Hall. "Thank you for this warm acceptance for my speech" Thorne started smiling, "As Professor Dumbledore has said, this new fifth house needs students in it, as you can already see, it I able to gain its own points" Thorne pointed up behind the students and most heads turned to see that a fifth hourglass had appeared for house points, this one was a dark grey against the four other colours. "And of course it needs its own Quidditch Team. Now, the Sorting Hat is here for those who wish to be sorted into the Guardian House, however there are some rules and regulations you must be aware of before you jump for it. First the point of the Guardian House is balance, without it you won't be accepted and you will be sorted back into your own house, what this means is that you need to embrace more than one house, Miss Granger would be a perfect example here, despite the courage she has that sorted her into Gryffindor she also holds a brain that could outsmart most of the Ravenclaw house." Thorne noted a few annoyed cries from the Ravenclaw house, and surprisingly the Gryffindors as well before continuing. "Of course it would be her own choice to make that decision. The Second thing to consider is your age, due to certain magics that being balanced can bring we can train you in a new style of magic whose teaching has been lost for just over 500 years, however it is impossible to teach you this magic straight away and technique and knowledge can take a long time to accumulate. As such it takes a minimum of four years to learn this magic and so we would ask that only Fourth Years and below try to gain entry into the Guardian House, and we will explain more on this once you have been sorted." Thorne stopped, reaching down for a sip of water. "Now to the Sorting, we'll start with the oldest first, Fourth Years, make a line."

It was only a few minutes later that 30 Guardians now sat at their new table having now been sorted, their robes now trimmed with a dark grey and showing the crest of two swords over a shield that symbolised the Guardians house. Thorne looked around, they all looked eager and he could now identify many of them from when they'd stepped up to be sorted, some stood out ot Thorne, like Katie Bell, one of two fourth years to be sorted in with the Guardians, whilst the majority of the house were first or second year students it was the third years that stood out the most to Thorne, some seemed happy to be out of their original house, including the three Slytherins from that year, others like Hermione Granger and Harry Potter spread discontent through both their own houses but also these choices seemed to annoy Dumbledore more than anything else, noting this Thorne vowed to look into that, it was even funnier when a call from the Guardian house echoed through the hall "We've got Potter now." That made the Slytherins burst into laughter and caused a large amount of grumbling in the Gryffindors that took Dumbledore several minutes to calm down. After silence once again spread through the hall as the re-sorting continued Dumbledore's eye sought out Thorne, the message clear in them, 'See me later'.

Nova stood up to speak "Thank you for coming up those who did, to those who are now seated at our table well done, I will take you to our new wing after breakfast." Nova stopped as a faint rumbling was felt all throughout the hall "Thank you Hogwarts" Nova continued, "That was Hogwarts breaking the last of the bonds that made the north wing inaccessible before." Ignoring the looks of awe from the students Nova continued, "Now, I believe you have until Monday off due to the re-sorting of the time tables so may I be the first person to wish you well for the rest of the week and that all homework that I'm sure many of you forgot about over the summer could be completed in that time, Thank you." Nova bowed and sat down again, starting to enjoy his breakfast.

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Thorne had a slight bounce in his step as he repeated the password Dumbledore had given him as he headed to the Headmasters office, almost feeling like a naughty student who'd stolen too much food out of the kitchen Thorne walked in and sat down. "So Headmaster, what is it that's troubling you?" Thorne asked, faking innocence.

"Thorne you must know that Harry Potter needs to stay in Gryffindor to complete his education, we can't have him corrupted by Slytherin." Dumbledore started his rant but Thorne cut him off before he got any further. "You mean you're afraid of the Slytherins. Oh come now Headmaster, I thought you of all people could of gotten over petty House rivalries by now." Thorne replied with a smirk, "Besides they're hardly Slytherin anymore are they?"

"That maybe but they still could corrupt him and we need him on the light" Albus hit his desk to prove his point, annoyed at the casual manner that Thorne was taking to this.

"Oh come on, you honestly think that they can 'corrupt' him just because they're Slytherin, or are you forgetting the piece of Voldemort stuck inside his head?" at Dumbledore's surprise Thorne smirked, "Yes I know of that and I have every intention of helping him get rid of it."

"You can't" Dumbledore replied indigently "He MUST be a sacrifice for good, we can't have it any other way, besides everything else is just as evil as what put it there in the first place."

"Oh come now you seriously think that?" Thorne questioned, "You forget who you're talking to Professor, I'm fairly certain I know of a way, but not now, not until he's of age."

"But by then it'll be too late" Dumbledore exclaimed, "He must die before he reaches of age, it must happen Thorne for the greater good."

"Oh come on, you're sprouting the same stuff over again, 'for the greater good'? There's no such thing. This world isn't black and white old man there's a grey in there as well, remember that. But anyway what do you mean it'll be too late? Unless you're helping Voldemort come back into this world in a real body? It'd be such a shame If you were, imagine the Daily Prophet 'Dumbledore Actually a Death Eater' the media would have you for breakfast."

"Are you threatening me?" Dumbledore roared "I could have your head for this"

Thorne yawned "Oh come on, if you'd looked into your ancient books last night you'd know you're in no position to do that, and for the record no, I'm not threatening you I was merely asking a question that you seem to have answered. So do you want me to talk to Rita Skeeter about this revelation?"

"No, I'm sorry I went too far" Dumbledore sighed, "You should know I have no intention of helping Voldemort, but the plans are set in motion. We mortals can't do anything about it."

"And we immortals?" Thorne asked smiling at Dumbledore's wording of it.

"I don't know, now begone."

Thorne did a mocking bow before heading out "Of course Headmaster." He said sarcastically, only waiting until he was out of the office before punching the air, not only had he scored one up on Dumbledore he'd also kept Harry in with the Guardian by forcing the old man off topic, it was a shame Dumbledore's brain wasn't more active, else Thorne would of loved to debate with him on the finer points of life.

**A/N: Hey again, couple of points to make out here, Yes Hermione is in the Guardians house I just didn't mention it there, Su Li is going to become a more main character, we'll just have to see how she pans out. What do you guys think of a Harry/Hermione/Katie relationship? been thinking about that one but want to see what people think. ****Breakfast scene here was hard for me to write, however I hope I've made up for it with the Office scene afterwards, it's the first of many. One more scene needs to be written before we hit the story proper and everything.  
Finally keep up the reviews, I'm glad people are liking this.**

******A/N (2): Redone parts of the chapter that I was uncomfortable with/didn't like, redone the sorting scene and added another bit in after the first meeting with Dumbledore, I'm not going to reveal how they're immortal just yet. Also thanks for the thoughts on the pairings, I think I'm going to have Harry/Hermione and Daphne/Katie, would never of thought of the second pairing but I like it now that someone has suggested it. **


	5. Chapter 4: A Guardians Wing

**A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, I've now properly officially decided that the pairings are going to be Harry/Hermione and Katie/Daphne as suggested by Starboy454, I plan on making both pairings gradual but prominent. Floweryyy, never really thought of Blaise interacting with either Harry or Hermione, if he ends up with anyone it'll probably be Tracey Davis or some OC I create. Tonkslover94, Sorry but Tonks isn't going to be appearing all that much, and the context for that sort of relationship probably won't work here. Ceo55, I'm going to draw on that, possibly including Daphne in it as well, that may even be how the whole Daphne/Katie thing get going.  
**

**Anyways, this chapter involves quite a bit of jumping around with POVs, but hopefully it isn't too confusing, especially as they're all talking about the same place. As always I don't own Harry Potter or any of the canon characters in any way/shape/form, nor do I stand to make any profits from this story. Thorne and Nova are my own OC's.**

**Chapter 4**

_Hogwarts, Thursday 2__nd__ September 1993._

Nova meanwhile had been facing a challenge of her own, although it was much smaller than her twins. "Right listen up Guardians" she called out, pointing to the stone statue of a warrior holding a kite shield and a sword she began speaking, "This is the entrance to the North Wing, and where you will be staying from now on, to get in now you will have to place your hand on the shield after me, OK so form a line and I'll start the process." Putting her hand on the shield she spoke quietly to the statue, "Hear me oh Guardian these are those who have been chosen" before lifting her hand from the shield and letting the students do the same as her, as each put their hand on the shield the statue slid open letting them into the common room area, "Don't go anywhere else yet" Nova called in as the students began to file in. As Harry stepped through he felt his breath get taken away, the common room area was fairly nice and simple and the dark grey of the floor, walls and ceiling was lit up by the roaring fireplace that was surrounded by a number of sofas, chairs and tables. In the wall opposite the fireplace was a singular door, and directly across from where he was standing, just inside the entrance, was a singular set of stair going up, there were two doors, one at either end of the staircase, and a bronze plaque on each door, '_Probably the sleeping areas'_ Harry thought .

Once the last one was in Nova spoke some more words quietly to the statue "Hear me oh Guardian the Chosen have passed" the shield glowed white in response before turning back to the stone colour it had always been. Walking herself into the common room Nova started to speak, "Ok once Thorne arrives we'll show you your sleeping quarters, now this is obviously the common room, and if you invite other houses into this wing this is as far as they can go. Now to get in here from now on all you have to do is put your hand on the shield and speak the password which is Centurion. Now through this door here" Nova pointed to a door opposite the fire place is the training room, "it is in here where you'll learn about the area of magic we will teach you, we call it The Ability, for simplicity's sake, now a basic run through of this ability is that it is a singular charm or jinx that fits you perfectly, as such every person has a different spell or charm and I have only ever met two people with the spell, not that I'll say who it is, now mine is the Disillusionment spell, meaning I can turn invisible and to an extreme I can let physical objects and spells go through me, now like Thorne said you can't get to that stage immediately, I've gotten to my stage through hundreds of years worth of training. Anyway I have gone off track, in the training room is also an area for you to exercise if you feel that way, in fact I encourage you to exercise, and in the middle of the training room is its own duelling area, equipped with everything for a magical or physical duel, including a weapons wall. Each of you will be assigned a weapon from third year and above, as that is when we will start to teach you guys properly about The Ability." That let down many first and second years. "Now then…" Nova started before stopping as Thorne appeared behind her, "ah perfect timing Thorne, you've got the boys, girls come with me, let's show you your dorms."

Thorne smirked, "Good to know I'm still needed." He replied before looking at the 18 boys, right come on guys I'm sure you'll like your new rooms, so let's go." Thorne turned around, before heading up the stairs, stopping at the doors, "Right first things first, only boys can open this door, likewise only girls can open the Girls Door downstairs, so let's go in" Thorne opened the door leading the boys into a long corridor, on the right hand side there were a series of doors, whilst on the left hand side was another small longue area, "Right OK, so here we have the boys only common room" Thorne said indicating the left hand side, as you're not allowed into each other's individual dorms this is where you can wait for people. Now on the right hand side are your dorms, like I said one person to a room, and each room has enlargement charms placed on them so don't worry it's bigger on the inside than it appears. I think each room has been configured to be a 10 foot square with an en suite, so enjoy, there's a bed, a desk and a wardrobe in each, for those on the quidditch team you'll have a broom stand. Each room has a name on it that's your room, 1st years are down this end, the older you get the further up you are, it's done in age order in your year as well." Looking around Thorne was glad that it seemed that everyone had understood, "I'll leave you guys to get used to this, your trunks are already in your rooms, the House Elves moved them for you when you were sorted. So enjoy." Thorne failed to hide the smile on his face as each boy raced to try and find their own room, checking on the corridor one last time Thorne turned and headed back out of the corridor, leaping over the banister missing the entire set of stair Thorne landed ably on his feet before heading over to the training room. Seeing it empty Thorne closed his eyes and smiled as memories flooded in from times gone by. Drawing his two swords out he walked to the centre of the training room, smiling to himself as the room prepared dummies for him to train against, at his call of "Start" the training began, the dummies moving around randomly as he targeted each of them, slashing and stabbing with his swords, scoring hits on them one by one, not letting up for another half an hour when he started training with his pistols, unaware of those watching him.

Su was mesmerized by the intricate pattern Thorne was weaving between the dummies, the elegance and skill shown with each move that was perfectly executed, each sewn together to create a war dance that would murder on the battlefield, leaving no enemy, or in this case dummy unscathed. As each dummy was destroyed the room created another, as wave upon wave of dummies continued to attack Thorne seamlessly switched to his secondary pair of weapons, the pistols now fired off training shots with lightning speed and accuracy, as Su became lost in the patterns woven she didn't notice Nova come up behind her, jumping when the older women touched her on the shoulder, "Impressive isn't he?" Nova said, "He's still a show-off, always was always will be."

Su nodded, unable to find the words she wanted to speak.

"Like that huh?" Nova grinned as she replied, "So your Su Li right?"

"Uh-huh, family come from China before they cracked down on magic" Su responded, giving her standard answer.

"Yeah, I remember hearing about that, we were mainly in Greece when that happened, when we rushed over there it was too late to do much" Nova nodded glumly, "So does your family have its own style of battle-magic?" Nova remembered that a lot of Ancient Chinese families trained their young in 'battle-magic' mixing martial arts and magic that often made them fierce opponents in duels, it also gave them an advantage in schools like Hogwarts.

"Yeah, it's based off Tai-Chi." Su replied, amazed that Nova knew of that, it was a relatively close kept secret amongst Chinese families outside of China itself. Picking the question right off of Su's lips Nova laughed before replying, "We spent about a century in China in about the 1600's, helped with the rise of the Manchu's and everything. At that point China was one of the few places on earth where magic and mundane mixed freely." Nova revealed, "We generally keep our past a secret, but I suppose I let that bit out, anyway, let's see what you've got then." Seeing Su nod Nova looked at Thorne, "Oy you're not the only person here."

At that Thorne stopped, putting the pistols into their holders before turning around, acknowledging Nova before turning to Su, "Su Li, good to see your serious about training, I was kinda worried we'd have to force everyone to do it, but this is good." Thorne stepped off of the area in the middle of the training room where he'd been training, headed for where the weapons wall stood. "Magical or Physical?" he asked,

"Both" Su replied, "Although I don't have a weapon."

"Good to see you're willing to try new things" Thorne said, before looking at the weapons wall and then back at Su, muttering to himself as he sorted through the weapons, "Let's see, Halberd, no too big, musket, no it's too modern. Hmm, yes this'll do." Thorne picked out a wooden staff throwing it to Su who deftly caught it. "You think it's just a staff huh?" Thorne said, "There's more to it than that. If you feel the ends of it, one ends has a star carved into it right? Well hit that and say 'star point'." Nodding Su did as Thorne said, jumping as a spear head emerged from the other end of the staff, protruding another couple of inches out onto the end, it was completely conical, "Same thing to make it disappear" Thorne told her. Complying Su saw the head slide back into the staff, showing no sign of it ever being there. "Right Ok, let's get some training dummies up for you, use your wand or the staff to take them out" Thorne looked up towards the ceiling "Start" he called, before watching as Su took on the dummies, wand in her right hand and staff in her left spinning around, taking on the dummies, although Thorne could see it was disjointed, noting where she left herself open. Five minutes later Thorne called for the training to stop. "Well done, brilliant for first try, I wouldn't mind if you could teach the rest of the Guardians your version of Battle Magic, the style seems familiar to me, but I can't exactly remember it. Still well done."

Su could only nod as she walked out of the training area, as she headed to the weapons wall to put the staff back Nova called to her, "Don't worry about that, the staff is your weapon, keep it. You seem to have an affinity with it."

"Thank you" Su replied before heading off again, this time towards her dorm. Watching her go Thorne turned to Nova, "If only they were all that good. We'd have the job half done then. Still I think she has great potential."

Nova nodded, "Battlemaster?" she questioned, referring to the position that they had created before, which was equivalent to second in command beneath the twins.

"Probably." Thorne replied, "Depends how well Harry does. Although I imagine he's going to be better in a political role somehow. But then we'd need to get some tutors for him to learn more about the political system, and we're not the right people to ask for once."

Any further conversation between the two was interrupted as a group of second years entered the training room and looked around, their eyes eventually resting either on Thorne and Nova or the weapons wall. Taking point Nova stepped forwards, "Hey guys, if you're here to train you won't be learning how to use those weapons until third year, we don't want people cutting their fingers off because they can't handle a weapon. However I'll give you three choices, first we've got an area over there with weights and exercise machines if that takes your fancy, otherwise Thorne can take you through some basic duelling stances and can help you with your spellwork, though note we won't teach you anything new. Otherwise there's a running track for a reason and I'll set the pace for you. Mix and match however you want, and don't ask us if you want to leave, it's your choice, just be sensible if you do. OK?" Nova watched us the group, which now included some first and third years split up to do one of the activities she'd described, noting the group who seemed to want to run she nodded, "Right OK you lot let's start nice and slow" and with that she started off, not looking behind to see if they followed.

It was another hour or two later when the entire Guardian House descended upon the Great Hall for lunch. In contrary to the majority of the school who'd been relaxing they looked like they'd just run a half-marathon, sitting down together the four years of students were all mixed, regardless of what house they'd been in before. Several teachers noted this as well as the students, and whilst the students started rumours that would spread like wildfire the teachers felt more of a heartfelt appreciation for the two Guardians who had done something no one had done for decades.

The rest of the day was spent at a far more usual pace for students at Hogwarts, with Thorne and Nova perfecting their lessons and working out when to do other things like Quidditch as well as helping with the timetables. The students were more interested in things like Exploding Snap, Wizards Chess and other more boring things like the inevitable summer homework that few had managed to completely finish. Harry was one of those, quickly scribbling up his potions essay, Hermione sitting across from him at the table in the large common room they now had, she'd already completed the summer work, and if what Harry had heard last from her was holding true she was already preparing for the second weeks work, although as with everyone else she couldn't for History of Magic, and that sole reason seemed to make her annoyed, worse than she normally was around exam time Harry thought before going back to his essay on Moonstone.

The next time Harry looked up he saw Thorne moving between the different groups in the common room, talking to everyone and handing others notes, noticing Harry looking up from the essay Thorne strode over, pulling up a chair at the table, "Afternoon you two." He said quietly, "Now as with everyone else I'll tell you that Nova and I are going to be in the training room, every day before breakfast, so if you want to join us your welcome to. Now also Harry, you never told me how good you were at Quidditch, and everyone I've talked to agrees that you're the best seeker, now we're holding trials on Monday evening so you'd best be there to show us all how well you do." Thorne patted Harry on the back, "And don't worry Katie's going to be pushing you as hard as Oliver, or at least that's what she said anyway." Thorne stopped for a minute then chuckled, "Sorry for the innuendo, should of seen it coming." Getting up to talk to more of the students Thorne looked at Hermione hard at work, "Oh Hermione, you're probably wondering what we're doing in History of Magic yes?" at Hermione's impatient nod he continued, "Then look up the Founders, we're delving deep into history." Thorne then walked away chuckling at Hermione's smile that lit up her face. Moving over to Nova, Thorne merely needed to look at his twin to see not only the happiness but also the sense of homecoming, finally after an exile that had lasted five hundred years, not only had they returned to Hogwarts, to Britain but they also held in their hand the seedlings that would grow into a new generation of Guardians.

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Yet less than 100 miles away, a large black dog quickly continued its journey that looked set to mess with certain inhabitants of Hogwarts and right a wrong that had been done almost 12 years ago…

**A/N: And yes I didn't forget Sirius, this year will be mainly canon coherent, at least until the later parts of it, then Fourth year onwards will be going off track and the Tri-Wizard Tournament will get a redux. Next chapter will start the year proper and we'll get to see the first History of Magic lesson, amongst other things. As always Read 'n' Review please.**


	6. Chapter 5: Lessons First Quidditch Later

******A/N: Hey again, updates will be a bit slower than usual due to how busy things are at home, you know Christmas and the like. Still keeping this going, for those interested in the Quidditch team it's made in the final scene of this chapter, for everyone else enjoy. Disclaimer: Thorne, Nova and Clare Whitewolf are mine, everything else belongs to J K Rowling, and I am making no money from this.**

**Chapter 5**

_Monday 6__th__ September 1993._

Harry had enjoyed the extra free days whilst they had lasted, and found that Thorne and Nova had imposed upon the whole house a time of getting to know the others regardless of previous house and the boundaries that placed. On top of that they had encouraged many of the Guardians to take part in exercises in the morning, which seemed strange and almost inhuman to most of the purebloods when they were told to do 10 laps of the training room, equating to about 1km a day. After that most Guardians then learnt duelling practices and some, Harry included, learnt how to use muggle weapons as well, although many had been given a weapon that they could use with ease and 'bonded' to Harry remained without such a weapon as every weapon tried seemed out of place in his hands, they'd gone for the closest fit which was a bastard sword that had the Gryffindor colours on the hilt. Still, after a particularly long session of training Harry now lowered himself into one of the seats at the Guardian table in the Great Hall, knowing that lessons were to start that day, and indeed they would gain their timetables today. Although that was not the reason Harry was happy, no it was after lessons when the Quidditch team would be meeting for the first time, and indeed Harry couldn't wait to get back into the game again, this time under the leadership of Katie Bell, one of the few fourth years in the Guardian House, but the most skilled of them at Quidditch by far.

It was halfway through his breakfast, which seemed to consist of everything a full English could throw at him, that Harry spotted Thorne moving around the table giving out timetables, and he felt the seat next to him being squeezed into soon after that as Hermione gave him his own timetable. Harry knew Hermione had been eager to take all the subjects but after a 5 hour debate with Nova she'd eventually backed down. One thing that Thorne had talked in great detail to the whole house about was the uselessness of Divination, which as Thorne had said 'unless you're a seer it's about as useful as a heap of Dragon Dung' and as such every third year in the Guardian house had been dissuaded from doing it, Harry now had Ancient Runes to replace it but was still doing Care of Magical Creatures as he had always planned, no matter what the case he wouldn't give up lessons with Hagrid, not without a fight anyway. Taking a quick look at his timetable Harry groaned as he saw that he had double potions first, thankfully the rest of the day didn't look that bad, with a free period followed by Herbology and then History of Magic in the afternoon. Normally Harry wouldn't care for History, but Thorne and Nova had promised that they would make it interesting for the students, seeing as they could draw upon their memories for several important magical events in history.

Taking a last bite from his bacon Harry picked up his bag and followed the line of Guardians trooping their way down to the dungeons for potions with the Gryffindors. Entering the potions lab he saw that many of the Gryffindors were already there, excluding Ron, who was still being greedy and attacking every bit of food on the Gryffindor table. What shocked Harry was the look of betrayal that was present on most of the Gryffindor faces, well all besides Neville who looked happy for Harry. However before anything could erupt Professor Snape marched into the room, forcing Harry to sit at the nearest desk, next to Hermione. Snape looked around at the class, "Well it seems I've got to teach you dregs another year of potions, hopefully we won't have any of you idiots die this year-"however he was unable to continue as Ron Weasley burst into the room, panting from running all the way from the Great Hall. "Aah so good for you to join us Mr Weasley. Ten points from Gryffindor for your late arrival, and another ten for forgetting food is meant to go in your mouth not on your clothes." The last comment left many in the room chuckling as Ron looked down to see egg yolk decorating his school robes. Trying to hide it with his arms Ron apologised before quickly running to his table next to Neville. "And another ten Mister Weasley, you know not to run in this potions lab" Snape bellowed out from across the room. "Now as I was saying before I was interrupted, some of you may not be able to grasp this potion, but it is imperative you learn it, this is the calming draught, and if brewed wrong it can cause the patient to hyperventilate. You have two hours, ingredients are in the cupboard and instructions on the board and in your books. Begin."

It was an hour later that Harry got out of the potions lab, his sample wasn't too bad, at least it was blue in colour, unlike some peoples, like Lavender's who had somehow managed to get it to glow a sickly green, however it wasn't the aqua blue Snape had been expecting, only the ex-Slytherins from the Guardians seemed to manage to get it perfect and luckily the only real accident had been when Ron had spilt his pink liquid and it had started melting the stone floor, earning him a detention for a week and losing Gryffindor 50 points. Thankfully Snape had forgotten to set homework and with a free period ahead Harry, although pushed by Hermione almost all the way, went to study for Ancient Runes in the library.

After that Herbology had been a breeze and lunch had quickly passed soon after, leading the excited Guardians to their first history of magic lesson, this time with the Slytherins. Entering into the classroom Harry first noted the strange runes that were dotted evenly on the walls, ceiling and floor. Settling his eyes on the front of the class he saw Thorne and Nova standing at the front, in full Guardian gear complete with weapons, between them was a strange stone bowl that had some vials containing a weird silvery substance that looked to flow around like a gas. Noting that everyone was in Thorne cleared his throat before starting, "Well hello everyone and welcome to our first History of Magic lesson, your previous Professor has focused solely on the goblin rebellions and as such we have decided to broaden your range of knowledge with events that we hold close to our hearts. So for the next term we're going to be looking at the Founders." Nova took up where Thorne left off almost immediately leaving no gap for questions, "Now you'll of noticed the pensieve at the front here, and the runes we've placed around the classroom, these allow the whole class to experience our memories, although I would recommend you stand up before we enter these memories as objects like chairs won't be taken In with us."

"So you're saying you knew the founders" Malfoy piped up, already chuckling "What sort of freak induced hallucination did you come out of?"

Thorne smirked, "Knew, fought alongside, protected, yes we knew the founders, and they knew us. I myself am still a Knight of Gryffindor but we'll come to that later. And in answer to your second question, I think it is you coming out of said hallucination if you think that you're anything like the sort of person Slazar wished to be in his house."

Malfoy worked a wonderful impression of a goldfish for a few minutes before shutting up.

"Now we're uninterrupted" Nova said, "Let's properly start the first lesson. Today we're going to give a brief run through of the founders and how they met, then each week we'll look at a founder in more detail for a couple of weeks, after that we'll look at Hogwarts herself, and then we'll finish the term with more personal history."

Seeing the class following Nova continued, "Now from next lesson onwards we'll start with a memory of the founder we will be looking at, however as today is only a brief overview we won't be showing a memory, at least not now anyway. We'll start our tale with Godric Gryffindor, he was a prince of the Kingdom of Gryffindor when the meeting of the founders started out, although not the crown prince, as that title lay with his older brother, Geoffrey. At the battle of Lions Gate which took place near modern day Welshpool Godric was mortally wounded by a poisoned arrow during the final knights charge that broke the enemy. Now the Gryffindor Kingdom was a known magical kingdom and mixed with other magical and muggle kingdoms and counties in Britain quite freely, and so they sent a request for the best healer to heal Godric. Now here comes the next founder, for it was a young man from the Slytherin Kingdom, by the name of Salazar who was also known as one of the best healers in the land, he healed Godric of the poison and was knighted as one of Gryffindors knights as a sign of unity between the two Kingdoms, now the Slytherin Kingdom was known to only mix with other magical Kingdoms and often went to war with muggles, but that isn't important until later in the story. Now to continue the story of how the founders met we journey on a few years, Godric is now a mature prince looking for a hand in marriage and Salazar is his brother in arms and also the kingdoms potions master, now in an attempt to unify more magical kingdoms Godric was engaged an married to Rowena Ravenclaw, a cousin of the King of the Fortan Kingdom in which was around modern day Leeds. The two married and lived together for a few years, whilst Geoffrey took over as King and Godric became crown prince. Now one day this would all change, as Salazar was called back to the Slytherin Kingdom which had fallen on hard times and had found itself without a King, now Salazar was called ot be King, and as the two were pretty much brothers Godric decided to ride up to Serpents Fortress with Salazar and stay there, as his wife Rowena agreed to go as well, and so a small bodyguard was formed to protect them as they rode north. Now it was in the Dales that the Gryffindor guards were meant to swap with Slytherin guards, however there was a gap were the only guards with the founders were there personal bodyguards, who just so happened to be Nova and I along with three other knights we knew. Now waiting for these guards we decided to move towards the nearby muggle village one of the other knights had spotted. To cut a long story short, Helga Hufflepuff was to be burnt at the stake for being a witch, in an act of fury the eight of us rode in there on our horses, saved Helga and in our fury we destroyed the village. At this Helga was introduced into the group, and the founders were united." Nova looked at the time and saw she'd talked through most of the lesson and that the class were either writing down most of what was being said or patiently hanging on to every word.

Thorne stepped forward to continue; "Now we've heard the story of how the founders met, and you can probably see our part in it. However there are more parts to the tale yet to be told, more specifically the in depth history of each of the founders, and of the different magical or muggle realms to which they belonged. We also will speak about Serpents Castle, the ultimate destination of the founders, its name may have changed a few times over the centuries but it has always stood firm in Hogsmeade Valley. Now, the learning part of this lesson has ended and its almost time for you to leave, however first I need to speak to you about how this year is being examined. You will, as always have your exams in the summer, but we also expect a coursework element of it. Now for you third years we want you to research a magical Kingdom, you will be expected to write several essays on them throughout the course of the year and they will be checked for truths, so don't make up a kingdom and expect us to believe you. So without further ado your first coursework assignment is to decide which kingdom you will do, if you want any help we are always free to ask so long as we aren't teaching or training. Now have a good afternoon." Thorne finished just before the bell sounded throughout the school that signaled the end of the school day. Waiting for the students to clear the classroom Thorne merely rolled his eyes at Nova, "Say too much the first time round and they either won't come back…"

"…Or they come back too often" Nova finished, "I know I just got carried away."

"I can tell" Thorne replied, "Now let's get down to the Quidditch pitch, I want to see our team form."

Nova nodded in response before moving to the window of the classroom, looking out she could see the grounds and the stadium below. "We haven't flown in a while" she commented.

Thorne smiled at her suggestion. "Let's see how a couple of birds of prey affect them then." Opening one of the windows Thorne watched as nova transformed into her animagus form before following her, moments later a Peregrine Falcon dived out of the window, shortly followed, this time more gracefully, by a Golden Eagle. The two nodded to each other, and ignoring the slight urges to go and hunt they flew over to the stadium, watching as the tryouts were already underway.

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Harry was surprised to see so many people appearing at the tryouts, almost all the guardians from second year and above had appeared, although a few like Hermione were taking the time to study for their homework. Katie quickly had the students sorted into groups, splitting them by position. Harry was pretty much by himself for the position of Seeker, only against a really cocky second year who probably thought he was king of the world. Seeing that it was the smallest group Katie approached the two first, "Right, Harry first off, I may know you from Gryffindor team but don't think I won't work you as hard as everyone else." Harry nodded before she continued, "Now I'm going to release three snitches into the air. Once you catch them they'll either turn red for you Harry, or Blue for you Stephen" the second year nodded briefly "Ok now you two understand, get up there and fly." It was five minutes later that Harry held all three snitches, as Stephen had almost fallen off his broom after kicking off, but for the rest of the time he was airborne he proved to be a decent flyer. Next up were the Beaters, the two eventually chosen were a second year ex-Gryffindor Ritchie Coote, who despite being weedy could aiming phenomenally and could put more than enough power behind the bludger if need be, the other was one of the few fourth years, Anthony Rickett was built to be a beater, filled with muscle rather than fat he had been on the Hufflepuff's Quidditch team since second year, and Katie knew that he'd be a good choice.

The next position to be tested out was the chasers, Katie already took one of the positions, but the other two were readily open, they were soon taken by Blaise Zabini and Jess Urquhart, Third and fourth year ex-Slytherins respectively who proved to work well together and easily incorporated Katie into their plays. The final position of Keeper was still open between a few students as the sun began to set, unsure whether to call it a day or not Katie decided to run the best three through their paces once more, asking the beaters to step in as well to send a few bludgers the keeper's way. Soon only one remained, Clare Whitewolf had lived in Greece for most of her life until her father told her her mother came from England and she'd started at Hogwarts, rather than the Athens Academy of Magic and had been sorted straight into the Ravenclaw House. Despite her slight build she was incredibly athletic and was very agile on her broom. Looking round Katie congratulated the team before wasting no time and telling them when their next practice was. Halfway up to the school they were greeted by two birds who soon transformed into Thorne and Nova, "Well done out there everybody, we were keeping an eye from the skies, if the tryouts were anything to go by we've clinched the cup comfortably, now come on I can hear the dinner table calling."

**A/N: well there you go, please review, not happy with the lessons at the moment so there may be a few tweaks done to them. For those wondering about Blaise, he is actually seen being a chaser in HBP, but I just put him in as I thought Slytherin needed to be represented. Also what do people think of Hogwarts being Slytherins Castle? I've seen several stories where Hogwarts is Camelot, but it never makes sense to me as Arthur (or at least Merlin) was Welsh (ergo Camelot should be in Wales as well, not Scotland) although I may make Gryffindors Castle Camelot, we'll see.**


	7. Chapter 6: Talking for a Change

**A/N: Hey guys, consider this the first part of my Christmas Present to those who follow me here. As always thanks for the reviewers who are encouraging me. **

**Starboy454: Yeah you've got Harry's weapon right, as you'll see in this chapter. **

**Fallen-Petals15: Don't worry he's not going to be in one anymore.**

**Anyway as always I don't own Harry Potter and I never will, likewise I'm making zilch from this. And on with the story...**

**Chapter 6**

_Monday 13__th__ September 1993._

Thorne sat back at his desk, he was waiting for a group of second year Slytherins to turn up for their detention, and as usual they seemed to be late, as such Nova had gone looking for them, leaving Thorne to his thoughts. Despite the interesting week that he'd had Thorne got the impression it was going rather well. All the classes now accepted the fact that there were two people in the castle that were almost 1000 years old, despite the fact that both of them looked no older than 30 each, it was part of their immortality that made them always look, and in essence feel the same as they did during their peak years. On top of that the Guardian House itself seemed to be functioning as one unit, the close proximity seemed to have negated the old rivalries that the students had had, the Quidditch team seemed to be getting on well enough off the pitch, although on pitch things were a bit more tense, and it showed after the almost daily practices that Katie seemed to be putting them through. Almost every Guardian was joining them for morning practices, with the first years doing a form of Tai Chi taught by Su Li to help improve their natural magic, second years and above learnt how to duel using magic, whilst the third and fourth years were learning how to use weaponry on top of that, they were also starting to find their abilities and the natural magic they were proficient at. At the same time this training was helping them concentrate their magic and learn natural although very weak mind barriers, which Nova would improve upon to create proper Occlumency barriers once their training had progresses enough. Everyone seemed to have gotten used to the weapons they were using, apart from one, Harry Potter, who despite clearing being a natural with a bastard sword couldn't work with any of the swords that Thorne had collected over the years, it was something they'd have to talk about, and it was that that made Thorne nervous.

Hearing voices approaching the classroom Thorne put his thoughts into order and sat up straight, his last thought on the matter for now was to speak to Harry ASAP, getting the problem out of the way now rather than letting it, and Harry struggle on. Noticing the door handle turning Thorne stood up and strode over as Nova escorted the three troublemakers inside, taking on a more strict side of his personality Thorne took control of the situation, "Right give your wands to me then sit at a desk on your own, I know your all behind on your work so you have two hours to get all your essays done, if you've not done all of them by then, then you'll be helping Filch for one day per lesson who's work you've not completed. Understand?" Thorne looked at the three boys who nodded, "Good, your two hours have now started, so get moving." The three quickly gave Thorne their wands before rushing to a desk and getting on with their work, apparently the threat of Filch was enough in any case, it kept Thorne from thinking up punishments.

Two hours later the three boys left the classroom with a few days to spend with Filch, Thorne left a few minutes after that, slowly walking through the corridors, performing a mock salute to the first pair of prefects who had just started patrolling before moving through the statue that stood guard for the Guardian Wing. Entering the common room Thorne wasted no time seeking out the person he was looking for, thankfully Harry was studying at a table by himself, Hermione who seemed to never be far away was on a separate table to herself, the pure amount of books piled on the table only seemed to cement that fact. Pulling up a chair opposite Harry Thorne cleared his throat to let the young boy know of his presence.

"Harry, I've been meaning to have this conversation with you for almost a week now." Thorne started, harry on his part nodded and put down his quill, pushing the book he'd been making notes on and said notes to one side, realizing this conversation could take a while. Seeing that he had at least most of Harry's attention Thorne continued. "First of all is a topic that should be easy to cover. As an heir to three of the founders, alongside House Potter you will wield a large amount of political power, however from your background, or at least what I know of it, you've grown up in the mundane, or as you guys call it, muggle world." Harry nodded, "I didn't know I was an heir to anything before you turned up." Harry's words confirmed Thorne's suspicions. "Very well, I thought as much. Now Dumbledore as your magical guardian_ should _of told you about your status as heir to at least the Potter house when you were eleven years old, I doubt he'd of known about you being a Founders Heir, but we'll never know. Now, this means you have no idea about Pureblood customs that you will need to know. As such Nova and I have been talking and we're going to ask one of your fellow Guardians to tutor you in Pureblood customs and etiquette." Seeing Harry's curious expression Thorne stopped as Harry asked his question, "Why couldn't you two? Your professors and as you've said you've lived for a thousand years so who is better?"

Thorne chuckled, "Quite a few people are better than us Harry, remember we've been in exile for the last 500 years, and even Pureblood culture has advanced in that time. Also we may not always be here, we have other jobs as well as being Professors remember, and so a fellow Guardian will be here more often than us. Add the fact we're thinking of getting someone from your year if possible, as that has added bonuses in itself."

Harry nodded, understanding where Thorne was coming from. "OK" he agreed, speaking after about half a minute's silence, "So what else do you want to talk to me about?"

"Two more things Harry." Thorne said. "First and some may say more vitally is Sirius Black." Harry visibly flinched at the name. "Don't worry Harry, three reasons here. One we know of the Blacks, or at least the Blacks of old, despite mainly being Slytherins they were known to be more loyal to their allies than many Hufflepuff's, and from the records I've seen it hasn't changed, now Sirius may have been the black sheep of the family, pardoning the pun, but I that streak of loyalty wouldn't have left him, so that made me look into him more, and it's this that made me want to raise the second point. What do you know of his trial?" Harry shrugged, "Nothing." He replied, a little shocked when Thorne smirked at the answer, "Exactly, that's what everyone on this earth knows." At Harry's confused expression Thorne explained, "There wasn't a trial, he was simply thrown into Azkaban, No one even asked if he was guilty." Harry's mouth now hung open in shock, "For all we know he isn't even a killer" the words eventually sprouted from Harry's mouth. "Exactly" Thorne replied, "Which brings me onto another point about him. Do you know he is your Godfather, and is meant to be your legal and magical guardian instead of Albus Dumbledore?"

"No" Harry replied in disbelief, the world as told to him by Albus Dumbledore seemed to already be frayed around the edges, and now even more so."

"Good to see the points are adding up Harry" Thorne joked, "Now onto why Sirius escaped and came after you, if as I believe he isn't a murderer." Harry nodded and Thorne continued, "These are copies of the paper found in Sirius' cell after he escaped" Thorne bought a copy of the Daily Prophet out of his robes, it was one Harry had seen before, with Ron and the Weasley's standing outside Gringott's after winning the money. Apart from these were marked, a circle was slightly off of Ron's head, whilst another circle outlined the fact that Ron was Harry Potter's best friend. "Looks like Sirius is more after Ron than you to me." Thorne said bringing Harry out of his thoughts, "Like he's trying to protect you from Ron, until you look closer. Look at the circle that's off centre of Ron's head, most would assume that it's a badly drawn circle, but look on Ron's shoulder, there's a rat."

"Scabbers" Harry exclaimed

"So that's his current name" Thorne said, "It's obvious that Sirius thinks that this rat is a danger to you, and by extension so is Ron and potentially the Weasleys. Now, as to how a rat could be a danger worth risking your life for there is only one explanation that fits, it's an Animagus."

"A what?" Harry asked.

"An Animagus" Thorne repeated, "A human that can turn into an animal but still retain it's right mind, me and Nova are two, as you can remember." Harry nodded remembering after the Quidditch try-outs. Thorne then continued, "OK, so all I can say right now is that this is speculation, until we can catch Sirius we have no way of knowing, however if we catch Sirius we must do it alone, the ministry would just give him to the dementors before letting him talk, also this means I want no-one else to know of this OK. Nova, you, I and Su Li are the only ones who know this right now, but we're going to be telling Susan in the morning, so that we can have Hogwarts help us at its full capacity. Before you ask, Su Li is our battlemaster, basically she's the next in command after me and Nova if we ever go into war, Susan on the other hand can only know this as heir to Hufflepuff, but we are also hoping she can slip some of this information to her aunt, Madam Bones, who is the head of the DMLE, especially as they are one of the two branches of the ministry we've ever got on with, I won't tell you the other, they need to remain a secret right now OK?" harry nodded, "Right I need you to take an oath of silence on this matter until it's resolved. This'll mean that you can only talk to others who know about this about this. Sorry that sounds confusing but it makes sense if you think about it." Thorne said, Harry agreed before repeating after Thorne as he took the oath of silence. "Good, now to the final topic and the one I'm most interested in. Your sword, it doesn't fit you but then again none of our weapons fit you perfectly and that's rare. Tell me Harry have you ever wielded a sword before?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah the sword of Gryffindor, it came to me last year in the Chamber of Secrets."

"Ok I'm going to need to hear this story, but that's good news, now do you know where the sword is at the moment."

"Yeah it's in Dumbledore's Office." Harry replied, "But only he or I could touch it last year."

"Yes that often happens" Thorne said, "Now at least I know where it went. Anyway that sword is bonded to you, meaning that you own it and only you can wield it. It allowed Dumbledore to wield it last year as he was the closest person to the founders, but that chain has been snapped. However for you to wield it you must be known to be Gryffindors Heir, although I doubt anyone knows that anymore."

"So what does this mean" Harry asked, "Especially as I haven't got it."

Thorne's smile cracked open and he started chuckling, "Well we have to get it don't we." He laughed, "I'll go and ask him for it tomorrow morning, if that doesn't work we'll just raid his office."

Harry looked worried at first, but seeing the confidence on Thorne's face made him feel like Thorne could do this thing backwards with his eyes shut "OK, I'm in."

"Good, I almost hope he denies us it just to let you in on your first mission as a Guardian." Thorne chuckled before turning serious again, "Now tell me, how did you end up in the Chamber of Secrets last year?"

Harry spent a good hour telling Thorne of his adventures last year, watching as Thorne's face grew darker and darker. At the end of the tale Harry looked up and saw a single tear in Thorne's eye.

"I guess I owe you an explanation. Now as I may of hinted in History of Magic last week this castle, Hogwarts is actually Slytherin's, that is why he has a secret chamber and none of the other founders have one. It's also why he was sometimes called the greatest of the Hogwarts four, or the founders, as it was his castle that let their dreams happen. Now the Basilisk you fought down there was a defence mechanism, if the enemy ever got into the castle then Slytherin's heir could call upon Ilid, as the Basilisk was called to help defend the hallways of the castle, however Riddle must of corrupted it to make it think that muggleborns were a sleeper enemy in Hogwarts. Whatever the case is, it's sad that Ilid is no longer with us." Thorne bowed his head respectfully for a minute, "However with her gone as it is we do have an extra bonus on our side, the various parts of the basilisk can be sold for huge amounts of money, and the hide can be used for armour much like the kind I always wear. We'll go check on it tomorrow, as I can't speak Parseltongue, we can also explore the Chamber in more detail again, I know for a fact that the area you were in was just the antechamber."

Harry yawned before agreeing, "I'd like to explore with you very much, I suppose it could be part of me learning more about my past."

"Exactly, we can also add that into your Pureblood lessons, the Potters were allied with a few houses that I know of 500 years ago, Nova or I can check to see if any still are and stuff like that."

"Thank you for all of this." Harry replied.

"Don't worry" Thorne said as he stood up, it's part of the job. Now get up to bed before you fall asleep." Thorne watched as a very tired Harry slowly climbed up the stairs to his dorm area, his bag hastily packed on his back. Looking around the common room Thorne shepherded the last few students into their own areas to get ready for bed, waking up a few who had gone to sleep in front of the fireplace. Making sure everyone had gone Thorne walked into the training room, watching as Nova packed up the last of the equipment in there before looking up at him, he already knew what the question was going to be and answered it prematurely, "The sword is back in use, we just gotta get it from Albus' office, whether through force or talk I'm not sure but we'll try the soft approach first this time."

Nova nodded, "I'll do the soft approach and we both know I'm better at it." Looking at Thorne's face again Nova noticed how serious it still was, "So what's up bro?" she asked.

Thorne looked back, "I was right about my guesses, we need to set the ball rolling."

Nova simply nodded back, now a lot more serious as she knew what Thorne was obviously worried about. "Let it begin."

**A/N: Once again keep the reviews up, they help me with the work and let me know it's appreciated. I'm starting to maneuver people into places so that I can carry on, as you can probably tell Daphne is going to make her official starting appearance in the next couple of chapters, as will Katie who's oging to be more like a sister to Harry. I'm sorry to the Harry/Hermione people out there reading this but I'm putting off the start of the relationship itself until the end of third year. Anyway onto other points, what are Thorne and Nova planning? Will Sirius make an appearance? Will Dumbledore let Harry have the sword? Stay tuned to find out. **

**And for those wondering why Ilid is called Ilid and can't work it out it's based off of eyelid.  
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	8. Chapter 7: A Sword Gained

**A/N: hey guys, here's another installment. Thank you to everyone who's reviewing this, this chapter looks into some of the twins History, it also sets up a couple of events to come, as well as the long awaited news on Sirius Black. Enjoy.**

**Chapter 7**

_Tuesday 14__th__ September 1993._

Nova had been able to sign to Dumbledore that she wanted to see him after breakfast, and thankfully he'd agreed. Walking up to his office Nova knew there had been a reason Thorne had quickly ducked out of this, as despite his intelligent mind he was not one for subtlety and often teased whoever he was speaking with by leading them round in circles to contradict their own point rather than getting to the heart of the matter and letting it seem as if the decision would benefit both sides as Nova could do. This meeting however held more in the balance than most, normally it would be speaking with a magical government or a district council/lord to gain the job of eradicating whatever was causing the region or country grief, that had been their way as bounty hunters and mercenaries since the fall of the traditional Samurai in the 1800's until the second world war and Grindelwald at least, at which time they were part of the American relief force that helped Europe out. Now they wanted to add their home country, Britain to the list of countries that fully supported and helped them, but first they had to get rid of three problems, the corrupt ministry, Voldemort and perhaps most importantly Dumbledore. To do the last of these Nova knew they had to suck up to him at least a bit, find his one weakness before striking, or if that didn't work even the most powerful wizard couldn't take on any more than one army by himself, and if worked correctly Nova and Thorne could raise a whole lot more than that.

Approaching the Gargoyle that guarded Dumbledore's office Nova gave the correct password before slipping inside. Knocking on the door twice with her knuckles Nova waited until Dumbledore's voice bade her entrance to the office. Upon entering Nova's eyes sought out the sword almost immediately, seeing it in a case on Dumbledore's desk Nova's eyes moved up to meet Dumbledore's. "So I see you know the sword?" he said already knowing the answer.

"Yes, I know that sword, I have fought alongside its rightful owner many times in my life" Nova replied, "though now it is time for it to be wielded by an heir again."

"You expect me to give up such an important relic to the school so easily?" Dumbledore questioned not wanting the sword to leave his office, and certainly not wanting it to get into the hands of Harry Potter.

"You know the sword does not belong to you or the school, despite its past with one of the founders. We are asking you to do what is right and to give the sword to us, we are called the Guardians for a reason." Nova replied, "Whatever you have against us we want to sort out, but know one thing, Harry Potter must know of his ancestry, his full ancestry for there are powers at work that not even you know of."

Dumbledore shook his head "And what do I have to believe you? I have heard rumours that you have a very well stocked armoury and I wish for you to either remove said armoury from the school or hand all weapons over to me, including yours for I fear what they may do in the wrong hands."

"You mean you fear what would happen if we don't like what you're doing?" Nova countered, smiling to herself as she saw Dumbledore's shocked face. "Don't even try to cover it up, we know what you've been doing, and you were so close to your goal weren't you? But one person slipped up their role in your grand plan and thanks to an innocent Sirius Black who you knew about we have been given a road in, although I will not pretend to know all of your plans we know of enough to hold you at a court." Nova smiled as Dumbledore's mood lowered and he saw himself losing the conversation.

"Very well, I'll drop the fact of your armoury if you drop these conspiracies fair?" he replied trying to maintain his dignity and very thankful over the privacy ward he had put up that meant none of the portraits could hear what was going on.

"Throw in the sword and you've got yourself a deal." Nova replied after a minute under the pretence of carefully thinking the plan over, she knew were both she and Thorne stood on the matter and they'd do almost anything to get the sword. This was why Thorne was preparing a small group of students as she spoke in case they weren't able to get anything the diplomatic way.

"No, I believe that a simple swap would be more than enough for now, perhaps we could discuss the value of the sword later, I am sure that you know of things that others would only dream of" Dumbledore's eyes were in full sparkle mode as he hoped that he could secure some information for the sword, if he did get it, it would be more than worth the sword, in fact if he worded it correctly he wouldn't have to worry about giving them the sword as he could get them arrested for practicing the Dark Arts.

Unfortunately for Dumbledore Nova wasn't as stupid as he thought she looked, "An interesting offer" she said at first, enticing Dumbledore as he leaned forwards in his chair, raising to the bait she set up for him. "However you must think me stupid not to see your plan old man, I know what kind of 'information' you would want and I would be the first to refuse to give anything of that type to you. Besides here you are trying to trade the sword of Gryffindor as if it was part of a homework assignment. I am sorry Dumbledore but you need to be taken down a few pegs before I'll start offering real deals to the likes of you." Turning around Nova stalked towards the door, unsurprised when it slammed in her face as Dumbledore shut it. "Doesn't bother me" Nova simply stated focusing on her ability until she was completely invisible, moving from where she was she was able to walk straight through the door as if it wasn't there. Threatening the Gargoyle It quickly let her go before she stalked off down the corridors to find Thorne and the Guardians.

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Thorne meanwhile had been busy. Tuesday morning was one of the two days a week where Thorne and Nova taught the Guardians of third year and above about their ability, along with doing extra duelling and training. Unfortunately there was no real training going on at the moment as no-one knew what their ability was, finding it out was just the first part of a long journey that it took to controlling it completely, and it would take centuries of training to get to the level that Thorne and Nova now stood at. What the first part of the training revolved around meditating, finding the magical core inside your body, it wasn't the easiest thing that Thorne had to explain as it wasn't in the same place for two people, each person's place was slightly different, Thorne's was on his right shoulder whilst Nova mirrored him by having it on her left. When Thorne had first given the class his instructions they hadn't realized that there would be no potion-induced trance or that it wouldn't come naturally to them, instead they had to search inside their magic to find where their magic was strongest, or rather where it felt strongest. Unfortunately for the group meditating and concentrating on their bodies was the best and only way to find their magical core, at least that Thorne knew of anyway.

Looking at his watch Thorne looked around the class, considering bringing them out of their own meditations, there were a myriad of different ways of meditating as the students in the group showed, some were sitting cross legged in yoga style positions whilst others were laying down, and others still had taken a seat and were in a similar position to how Christians prayed, knees together, head bowed and hands pressed flat against each other. However the tranquillity of the class had to end soon, sooner than usual as this was the best time Thorne had to speak to the people he needed to talk to about tonight's 'raid' as he and Nova had been calling it. "OK everybody it's time to go, besides those who I asked to speak to at the start of class who I need to speak to for a few moments before you go, don't worry I'll give you a permission for if you're going to be late." All bar six students left the training room, from where they spread out, some going to their rooms or the common areas, others going out to other classes.

Thorne looked over at the six students who had now gathered round him, five Guardians, Harry Potter, Su Li, Daphne Greengrass, Katie Bell and Justin Finch-Fletchley and a Hufflepuff, Susan Bones was the only non-Guardian to be training to use her Ability, and that was only because of the fact she was the heir of Hufflepuff, although allowing her to be in the group had been a hard fought battle against Dumbledore worthy of an entire story of its own that had only ended when Amelia Bones, Susan's aunt and head of the DMLE had agreed to let Thorne and Nova teach her. Thorne lead the six over to the middle of the training room where they usually practiced duelling, now however it had been transfigured into a room with a table and eight chairs inside, upon the table was a map of a familiar looking place, Hogwarts seventh floor to be precise. Inviting the students to take a seat Thorne only had to wait a minute before a rather annoyed looking Nova entered the room before he began speaking. "Right, the reason I called you in here today is because of this" Thorne handed round a picture he had pulled from a pocket inside his cloak, "Harry knows what this is, in fact he wielded it just last year, this is the sword of Gryffindor" five gasps of surprise were the only sound heard in the room, Harry just looked at Thorne and Nova, his eyes almost displayed a sense of knowing. "Now as rightful heir of Gryffindor Harry was able to summon the sword last year when he fought Ilid, the Basilisk of Slytherin." Thorne stopped as he put a closed fist over his heart for a second or two before continuing. "Now as Harry summoned the blade the two bonded, that is why if you've noticed, Harry is unable to really use any blade in our arsenal but the best results he's getting is from the bastard sword, because that is the closest sword we have to the sword of Gryffindor. Understand so far?" Six heads nodded in understanding whilst Nova continued as it contained her part of the story, "Now as the sword bonded with Harry it means it belongs to him and purely to him, not to us, not to Hogwarts and certainly not to its Headmaster. So being the twin with more tact I tried to get back the sword for Harry, for it will only allow the heir of Gryffindor and us the Guardians to touch it, and only the heir to wield it in battle. But anyway I'm distracting you, after a talk with our 'esteemed' Headmaster he refused to hand over the blade, his reason was because he was afraid of what it could do in the wrong hands, despite knowing it can only be wielded by you Harry, so that must mean that Dumbledore is either afraid of you or afraid of us. This means he wants to stay as Overlord, sorry I mean Headmaster of Hogwarts, and whilst he _will_ be bought down now is not the time, however we must reclaim the blade, so each of you are gathered her for a reason, and that reason is to help us do what no other person has done since the founders time themselves, and steal something from the headmasters office." As soon as Nova stopped talking there was dead silence in the room.

"Of course what Nova fails to mention here is that we are the only people to have ever stolen something from said office and gotten away with it." Thorne said chuckling at six mortified faces, "You're going to have to get used to this, as Albus way-too-many-names Fumblemore isn't quite as grand as he makes out, nor is he such an esteemed leader of light that he makes out. So taking that into account do any of you want to pull out, but before you do I will say this, withholding the sword of Gryffindor from the heir is akin to not following a will"

"Which means that Dumbledore is punishable by death if the goblins hear of it" Susan Bones spoke up, noting the confused faces around her she continued, "What, having an Aunt as the head of the DMLE makes you learn a lot about crime and punishments. Of course if the ministry get word of this the worse they can do is ten years in Azkaban."

"Very well done." Nova congratulated Susan, "Now is the time for you to decide, are you in or are you out?"

Of the six students the first to agree was Susan, quickly followed by Justin, Su and Harry, Daphne and Katie seemed to be holding a silent conversation with each other before finally nodding. "Well looks like we were right in choosing you" Thorne noted before explaining himself, "We needed some people to agree to carry the plan out like you Harry and Susan, and Su was an obvious choice as she's are next in command however the remaining three slots were unknown, Daphne and Katie, you're chosen because of how good you are at spell work but also because you both seem to carry a streak that means you'll break from authority" Thorne said the last bit with a slight twinkle in his eye as if seeing beyond the two girls for a moment, "And you Justin are here because of your ability in the physical side of duelling, I assume you came into contact with swords before Hogwarts?"

"Yeah, my Mum taught fencing when she was younger so she taught me some when I was ten, she still does over the summer cos she believes that wizards wouldn't know what to do if they came face to face with a sword."

"You'll have to introduce me sometime" Thorne said, "I love a kindred spirit, especially when they're right about a point, most wizards these days don't know how to use a sword. It certainly explains why you use a rapier as well. Anyway back on task, here's the plan…"

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Half an hour before curfew the plan went into effect. On the third floor corridor where fluffy had once sat there was chaos for a different reason, as two students faced off against one another in a duel, despite the fact that both Katie and Daphne knew they were merely a distraction they were both going all out to try and better the other. Of course a duel in the corridor bought all the attention it was meant to as not only Filch but almost every member of staff came running towards the position of the fight, although it had been a student who had reported it, not the portraits as usual. Dumbledore was the first on the scene as the student, one Justin Finch-Fletchley, had rushed to his office first saying that two of his housemates were duelling in the corridor over him as both fought to be his girlfriend. Of course it was all a lie but it was a compelling enough story for Dumbledore to believe, and after giving Justin ten house points the third year was sent on his way to the Guardian Wing. Of course he never got there as he quickly joined up with Thorne, Su, Harry and Susan who were now moving quickly up to the now unprotected Headmasters office. Stopping outside the gargoyle Thorne ordered Justin to hide in an alcove near the end of the corridor, he was the first distraction in case Dumbledore returned early, the next distraction was Su who would remain hidden by the Gargoyle.

Uttering the correct password Thorne moved into the small space between the back of the Gargoyle and the door into Dumbledore's office proper before giving Susan and Harry two dark grey cloaks, "These will hide your identities so long as you keep the hoods up, Susan you're needed here as a witness whilst Harry will actually take the sword, I'll transfigure the sword your carrying now into a copy of it. OK?" the two heirs nodded, "Good then hoods up" Thorne said, pulling his hood from his ever-present cloak up, covering his face, turning round he nodded with approval as Susan and Harry had done the same, "Now anyone with a cloak like ours on will be able to see your face but no-one else will."

Turning back around Thorne opened the office door and calmly moved into the office, swiftly locating the sword he held a gloved hand out, receiving Harry's bastard sword in return, acting quickly he vanished the glass case around the sword before removing the sword and replacing it with the bastard sword which he quickly transfigured. Giving the sword to Harry who quickly put it into his sheath. Meanwhile Susan had used her own initiative by distracting the portraits of the previous Headmasters by idly browsing through the cabinets and bookshelves, taking books and objects out and placing them back in random order, sometimes even in different bookshelves or cabinets as well. Thorne whistled quietly to her to get her attention, signalling that they were done before the trio slipped back out of the office again. Collecting the two other students that formed their part of the team they slipped away just as Albus Dumbledore took his first step onto the seventh floor.

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Whilst Thorne and his team had been busy it fell to Nova to stall for time. As soon as Dumbledore arrived on the scene of the duel she disillusioned herself and moved from her position around the corner to see the Katie and Daphne being stunned by Dumbledore, "Now come on Albus I'm fairly certain there was no need for that" Nova said proclaiming her appearance as McGonagall and Flitwick rounded the other corner and stood behind Dumbledore. "However I'll be certain to see that these girls get the detentions they deserve."

"I assure you I can handle their detentions myself" Dumbledore countered

"I'm sure you could, however I know this is an in house matter and thereby it should be the duty of the head of house, namely me to give the girls the punishment they deserve." Nova replied before reviving the two girls who merely flashed smiles at each other before moving towards Nova.

"Maybe so if it had remained inside the common room but as it is in a public place as headmaster of Hogwarts I am the one to administer their punishments."

"Thereby as Guardian of Hogwarts I will overrule you." Nova smirked as she played her trump card, "Seeing as I have the same amount of power as the founders did when they ruled the school, I believe you will find it extremely hard to gain any power to overrule me."

Dumbledore opened and closed his mouth a few times before addressing the professors behind him, as a number of them had now turned up and seemed quite interested in the verbal battle between the Headmaster and Nova. "I don't believe that all of you are needed here" he said, watching as most of them disappeared except the other heads of houses. "Now Nova I'm sure it won't come to this but I think that the severity of their punishment should be extreme considering the damage they have caused."

"And yet you ignore the bias that Severus has for the Slytherins. No I'll make sure they have the right punishments as described in the charter." Nova turned to Flitwick, "I don't suppose you have a copy of the charter in your office Filius?"

"Why yes I do believe I do, I'll get it right away" the half-goblin squeaked before moving back towards his office.

It was five minutes later when he returned, more than enough time for Thorne Nova thought, "Now then" Flitwick said, "For duelling in the school corridors, regardless of damage the offenders are to have two weeks' worth of detention from whomever their head of house dictates and 50 points should be removed from their house."

"Well there you have it" Nova spoke out, "I'll see that these two get two weeks' of detention each and as stated 100 points have been lost by the Guardians house. Now, as it's approaching curfew I'll get these two back to the wing." With that Nova grabbed both girls by their arms and walked away with them, leaving no time for Dumbledore to argue, but neither did it give them time to see the murderous look on his face.

The eight of them got back at roughly the same time, and gathering in the training room once again Thorne and Nova congratulated them, "Now I believe that for righting a wrong that each of you should be given 20 points." Thorne said grinning as the total for the house moved up to 30 points beyond what it was before the plan, of course that was only the icing on top of the cake for Thorne and Nova as they now had the Sword of Gryffindor back and training could begin.

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Out in the mountains near the edge of the Forbidden Forest was a cave, and whilst the cave had been empty for decades before, there was now something living in there, a grim who was also a person, a person that went by the name Sirius Black.

**A/N: Longest chapter yet, but I plan to make them all about this size from now on. I've realized I've missed a couple of plot points I set up earlier on so they'll be returning soon. Hope everyone enjoyed seeing Dumbledore being beaten down twice in one chapter. Also as a heads up I've decided to split the story into two parts, the first one will follow years 3 and 4 which will stay closer to cannon, whilst the second will swing away from canon and follow years 5-7.**

**As always please Review.  
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**A/N 2:fixed the spelling of Justins surname, which i misspelled horribly **


	9. Chapter 8: Quidditch, Maps and Covicts

**A/N: Finally got this one up after work, re-unions and parties seemed to steal a lot of my free time. Also found out I'm rubbish at writing Quidditch games, although I have written up a few scenes for later on that are going to be quite fun. Anyway usual disclaimer and enjoy.**

**Chapter 8**

_Saturday 31__st__ October 1993_

"AND TODAY, THE NEW GUARDIAN HOUSE WILL PROVE THEMSLEVES FOR THE FIRST TIME ON THE QUIDDITCH PITCH." Lee Jordan roared out to awaiting crowds that filled the Quidditch stadium, "HOW WILL THE NEW HOUSE PERFORM AGAINST GRYFFINDOR?WE HOPE THAT NO BAD BLOOD WILL EXIST BETWEEN THE TWO TEAMS ESPECIALLY AS ONE HARRY POTTER IS NOW PLAYING FOR THE GUARDIANS."

"Jordan" McGonagall's voice reprimanded the fifth year, letting him carry on with introducing the match.

"OF COURSE PROFESSOR, AND NOW HERE THEY COME, THE GUARDIANS ARE OUT FIRST, THEIR KEEPER, CLAIRE WHITEWOLF FOLLOWED BY THEIR BEATERS, RICHARD COOTIE AND ANTHONY RICKETT, THEN THE ONE AND ONLY, THEIR SEEKER, HARRY POTTER AND LAST ARE THE CHASERS, BLAISE ZABINI, JESS URQUHART AND THEIR CAPTAIN, KATIE BELL."

General applaud rose from the crowds, although the Guardians seemed to have gained many Slytherin supporters, the small scale rivalry between Draco and Harry had transferred across houses, but this was dwarfed by the rivalry with Gryffindor as shown by the dark grey banners that adorned the green and silver fifth of the stadium.

"AND NOW HERE COME THE GRYFFINDOR TEAM, WOOD'S DONE A BRILLIAN JOB WITH THIS GROUP AS HE LEADS THE TEAM ONTO THE FIELD AS KEEPER, WITH HIM ARE THE BEATERS, FRED AND GEORGE WEASLEY, CHASERS ARE ALICIA SPINNET, ANGELINA JOHNSON AND THE NEW THIRD OF THE FLYING FOXES, DEMELZA ROBINS. AND THE NEW GRYFFINDOR SEEKER, THE THIRD OF THE WEASLEY'S ON THE TEAM, GINNY WEASLEY!"

Gryffindor roared in appreciation and their supporters in both Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw showed their support with banners and loud voices.

Harry zoned out as he got onto his nimbus, rising up with the rest of his team he faced off against his old team. Taking up his usual position above the game to start Harry was in a prime position to view the game from above, taking in every aspect as Madam Hooch started the game with the sound of her whistle. Scanning around he saw Ginny flying alone in a similar position to him, he smiled thinking about how Wood had obviously got her to do a similar sort of job to Harry had in his last two years, although now with the encouragement of Thorne and Nova he'd changed his tactics as a seeker. Now he was to become a fourth chaser, this allowed the team to perform more challenging manoeuvres whilst also kept Harry in the game and warmed up, ready to take off after the snitch at any point in the game, rather than waiting and freezing above the game as Ginny was obviously planning on spending the afternoon. When Katie had told him to take up his old position at the start of the game she'd confused him, until her plan was properly unfolded, she planned to use both her and Harry's knowledge of Wood's plays against them, as well as using different plans from what Wood expected of the two Gryffindors. Harry would start off like he always had, up above the clouds, drawing the Gryffindors to believe he would do as he always had done, however as soon as the first goal was scored, whichever side it was on, that would be Harry's signal to move in and start executing their plans. Urquhart bought with her an intricate knowledge of the Slytherin plays and Katie had been able to use that to her advantage in creating her own, a mix of Gryffindor skill and Slytherin subtlety or lack thereof.

Harry snapped out of his thoughts as he heard Lee Jordan bellow through the stadium that the Guardians had just got their first goal, taking the signal Harry looked as if he had seen the snitch, and knowing Ginny was now looking in his direction, he dived down and into the play, almost instantly affecting the game as he intercepted a pass between Demelza and Alicia. With the Quaffle now in his hands he came out of his dive, watching as Ginny followed, confusion etched on her face, before he comfortably passed the Quaffle onto Blaise, ignoring the argument now being broadcast across th stadium as McGonagall tried to convince Lee that what harry had done was completely legal and safe.

It was another five minutes of play later, and a slight Guardian lead before Harry finally spotted the snitch, standing out slightly against the yellows of the Hufflepuff section of the crowd. Noting that Ginny hadn't seen it he slowly made his way over to the area, every so often checking for Ginny's position and that of the snitch. Deciding enough was enough Harry set off, determined to catch the snitch, watching it as it wove its way around the pitch, now with a determined Harry set off in pursuit, and another ten or so feet behind him was Ginny, desperately hoping her Cleansweep could have enough in it to at least keep pace with the Nimbus, however it was not to be as the Nimbus, the champion of all the brooms at Hogwarts kept Harry closing in on the snitch quicker than anything Ginny could match. Reaching out with one hand Harry felt his fingers close around the golden ball and, making sure his grip on both it and the broom was secure, lifted it into the air and slowed down on his broom, circling the pitch once as feelings of happiness were shown, etched onto the teenagers face. Landing Harry dismounted before walking over to where the rest of his team stood, although he was unaware of it he would later find out that the Guardians had won their first match 210-70.

"Well looks like we have a victory party to plan after the feast has finished." Thorne's voice cut through the cheers of the team as they turned to see their professor walking towards them, "Katie, I believe you have a few words?"

Katie nodded, before huddling the team together, noting Thorne having moved away so that they received their privacy. "Well done Guardians, you've won a victory today, now you've just got to beat the rest of the houses to get that trophy. Keep this up and I have a feeling that they might give us the trophy before Christmas." The group chuckled as they broke up, headed back into the changing rooms to get back into uniform.

It was fifteen minutes later that a freshly cleaned Harry wandered back out of the changing rooms, he turned around only waiting for about half a minute before the final member of the Quidditch team exited the changing room. Blaise Zabini wouldn't have been Harry's first choice of a friend, he still held many secrets and in a similar way to Harry hardly ever mentioned his home, although unlike Harry it wasn't the absent of parents and care that seemed to be his problem. But still the two had struck up a friendship, from what Harry had learnt Blaise always kept his cards close to his chest until he could play them, and only then to maximum effect, his pure cunning was what had put him in Slytherin in the first place, although his courage to stand against Malfoy's group had been taken into account during the re-sorting obviously. In some ways Blaise was a new Ron, a third member of Harry's friendship group, although this one was much larger than his previous group in Gryffindor, as almost every Guardian was friendly with one another, any differences were sorted out quickly, but they had to be to survive in the new environment that the Guardians had found Hogwarts to be.

As the two began their walk up to the school, both looking forward to the party that Thorne and Nova had organized, it'd roll straight into the Halloween Feast, and despite Harry's normal depression that came out at this time every year this year was different, it was almost as if fate was giving him a breather and giving him other, happier emotions that could cover the depression he was really feeling. Looking up at the castle Harry drifted into his own thoughts, thinking of Ron briefly, his old friend hadn't exactly been happy to be separated from Harry and Hermione, although jealous was probably a more accurate term for how Ron was feeling, and it was his own jealousy of Harry that had broken the friendship, that and his hostility towards all non-Gryffindors, he seemed to ignore the fact that the Guardian House even existed, and whilst Harry and Hermione had still hung round with him he'd constantly tried to get the away from the 'dangerous snakes' like Blaise, needless to say Harry hadn't been happy and when giving Ron an ultimatum Ron had chosen to break friendships with Harry. Harry and Hermione had spent a week by themselves after that, strengthening their friendship before they started to break down the old boundaries and began to mingle with the other groups, the two had joined forces with the three Slytherin third years along with Su Li and Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones, who seemed to spend more time with the Guardians than Hufflepuff, but it was hardly unsurprising, Hannah and Susan had been nigh on inseparable from when their families had introduced them to each other at the age of 6. The group had quickly accepted the few fourth years, but was still split into smaller groups, although they would work together whenever the help was needed.

"Harry, you ok?"

Harry blinked and shook his head before looking at Blaise, "Yeah, sure just been thinking about the group, it's weird how we came together so quickly like that."

"I'd say that Thorne and Nova have something to do with that." From week one Thorne and Nova had insisted on being called by their names rather than professor, although many of the Guardians still called them that.

"Oh. How so?" Harry genuinely asked, unsure where Blaise was coming from.

"Well, think about it when we've training, both in the morning and the lessons Thorne and Nova have put us into different pairs right?" Blaise started out

"Yeah, and…?"

"Wow I can't believe you're the heir of Ravenclaw" Blaise joked, "Anyway, if you think about who we've been paired with, apart from Su Li and then think of the group of us, you'll notice they're the same."

"Oh." Harry replied, finally cottoning on. "So they've put us together in set groups."

"Not quite." The voice surprised both boys as Nova appeared in front of them, "Well now I've found you two I believe that we can get the two errant Quidditch stars to the party." Nova smiled at the two of them, "And whilst I couldn't help but overhear your conversation I do have to disagree with a couple of points, we haven't been manipulating your groups of friends as much as you may think, we've merely given you the ability to get to know someone better and have accepted them into your group, by the end of the year we're hoping to only have one big group as everyone will have been paired with everyone else by that point and gotten to know them well enough to get on."

"So why are you being so sneaky about it?" Blaise asked as the three started walking together.

"And you were a Slytherin?" Nova asked sarcastically, before switching to a slightly more serious voice. "Tell me, why you think we're being so underhand about this?"

"Because forcing people together isn't as good as gently letting them in?" Harry interrupted.

"1-0 to the heir" Nova replied, "Now come on, we want you guys at the party before the feast." With that Nova started jogging off and after a brief glance and a shrug of their shoulders the two boys followed her.

)))))(((((

It was in the parties third and final hour before the feast that Harry finally managed to slip away as his sombre mood returned and his thoughts turned back to that day in his life thirteen years ago. Walking out of the castle Harry slowly picked his way to a spot next to the Black Lake that he had come to once or twice before the previous year when he needed some time to get away from all the 'heir of Slytherin' abuse he was being forced to endure. So lost in his thoughts Harry didn't notice the other man walking to join him until he was tapped on the shoulder. Looking up Harry recognized his DADA teacher, Remus Lupin. Lupin had been a friend of his dads and was one of the few links he truly had to his parents, Lupin had been a massive help in Hogwarts during the weeks after joining the Guardian House and Harry had confided in him over Ron's split from the old 'Golden Trio'. In return Lupin had trained him in different, more practical ways than Thorne and Nova had, after the incident on the train Harry had slowly been learning the Patronus Charm, although he hadn't found success or a happy enough memory yet to cast a corporeal version of it, although his silver mist seemed to drive back the Dementor-Boggart well enough. The two had also talked about Lupin's times in Hogwarts with Lily and the Marauders as they'd been called, Lupin regaling Harry with tales of the pranks they'd pulled off and the innocent times they'd had before facing Voldemort.

"I miss them too cub" Lupin's words bought Harry back, although he didn't necessarily like Lupin's nickname for him.

"Yeah" Harry replied, finding himself unable to put his emotions into words, the simple acknowledgement of the fact seemed enough for the two of them though.

Lupin shuffled nervously before continuing, "I know that Halloween isn't normally the time for giving gifts and such Harry. But I recently 'acquired' an old heirloom from your father's school days." Lupin bought out what looked like an old piece of parchment, which Harry immediately commented on.

"Ah but it's more than that" Lupin said, picking up the map he put his wand on it before clearly saying, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." At that Harry gasped in astonishment as the parchment began to draw a map of the entirety of Hogwarts, including several hidden passages that Harry had no idea about.

"This map was made by the four of us Me, James, Sirius and Peter during our time here, or as we proudly called ourselves then, Moony, Prongs, Padfoot and Wormtail, or collectively the Marauders." Lupin explained to Harry. "I think it's time you and your Guardians carried the Marauder legacy on, and so as Mr Moony of the Marauders I give this map to you Prongslet."

"Prongslet?" Harry asked.

"Well, James was Prongs and so that's the best Marauder name for you I could come up with. Of course you wouldn't get your true Marauder name until you gain your other form?"

"Other form?" Harry was beginning to sound a bit like an echo, and realizing it himself mentally slapped himself for doing so.

"Yeah, James, Sirius and Peter were animagi, they were able to turn into an animal specifically a stag, a dog and a rat respectively. Before you ask I wasn't an Animagus, bear in mind that not everyone can be one and I was one of those unlucky few." Lupin left his explanation at that, not wanting to divulge any more of his personal information.

"I'm sorry for that Professor, I take it you couldn't teach me to become one then" Harry asked, a childhood innocence briefly returning to him.

Lupin chuckled, "Unfortunately not. I simply don't have the time these days. Although I do know of a few books in the library that would help you. Bear in mind that it took the three of them three or so years to perfect their forms, so don't expect instant results, you can't just drink a potion and be done with it."

"Thank you Professor" Harry replied before looking at his watch, "We'd best hurry else we're going to be late for the feast."

"Indeed so Harry" Lupin replied, "Though one final thing before we shoot off anywhere. To close the Marauders Map down simply point your wand at it and say 'Mischief Managed'." Showing Harry he then gave the teenager the piece of parchment, "Now keep that safe, I can talk from experience and say getting it out of Filch's office is notoriously hard."

"Yes Professor." Harry replied, tucking it into his pocket before heading off for the feast. Lupin stayed a few more moments, looking out at the newly rising moon, it was almost a full moon and he could feel the inner wolf waiting to break free. 'One more day' he thought solemnly, 'One Day More'.

)))))(((((

Neville Longbottom sighed. It just had to be him, with his luck running as it did at the moment he'd be dead by Christmas. Ever since Harry had left Gryffindor Ron had tried (and miserably failed) several times to claim dominance over the Lions, often meaning that Neville, who was still loyal to Harry clashed with the red head at least once a week. Although his luck was down his confidence was now up, although that didn't solve his problem at the moment. Staring back at the portrait where the Fat Lady should of resided he forgot about his hurry to leave the Great Hall and get his History of Magic essay done for the next day. Now as he stood there in front of the empty portrait he noticed the slashes in the painting, it had been attacked by something akin to a knife. Doing the one thing he could think of doing at that moment Neville started walking briskly back to the Great Hall, all the while calling out for a Professor to help him.

It was then that Neville's luck both changed and got worse. Finally sighting a Professor but he could also hear the sound of the school coming out of the Great Hall, headed for their dorms. Not wasting any time he called out, "Professor Thorne, the Fat lady's gone."

For all his casual demeanour and easy going attitude Thorne replied like a professional idiot. "Huh?" Not understanding what Neville was going on about, or why it required any attention.

"Professor, the Fat Lady's gone, we can't get into the Gryffindor Tower."

This prompted Thorne's response, "So they finally got rid of the Lion Statue then?" seeing Neville's confused look Thorne quickly explained, "Look five hundred years ago when I last visited Gryffindor Tower it was guarded by a lion statue, considering this was before the Fat Lady was even born. Anyway I digress; I'll head up there now." At that Thorne started off at a jog which Neville had trouble keeping up with.

Unfortunately for Thorne and Neville, they weren't the first there although all those who had turned up by now had done nothing more than stand around and mutter. Seeing the students standing there Thorne used his voice to make a way through, "Come on, move out of the way, Professor coming through." At his voice the growing crowd of students split apart allowing him through to the portrait. Up close with the portrait Thorne started spotting the knife marks, studying them intently, working out the sort of knife that would have been used here. "Sometimes being a warrior can be dead useful" he muttered to himself before turning around to the Gryffindors. Seeing more Professors coming up the corridor he started to instruct those standing around. "Everyone, make way for the professors. Neville, ten points for coming and finding me when you saw this." This got Neville some positive encouragement from his housemates as they moved so that Dumbledore could make it through leading the majority of teachers with him. At the back of the group Thorne instantly spotted Nova along with Su Li. Turning his attention back to Dumbledore he made a report. "Knife marks, made by a five inch human blade, Fat Lady probably fled when the man who attacked her started cutting the portrait up."

"And why do you say it was a man?" Dumbledore asked.

Thorne's face grew serious, more so than usual. "There's only one man or woman free at the moment who would of done this, we were all at the feast and so it would have been the perfect opportunity for one Sirius Black." The entire hallway gasped at the name, knowing that Black was on the run having escaped from Azkaban.

Then Dumbledore took command, looking at the four traditional head of houses. "Get your students into the Great Hall, he could still be here now, they can sleep there for tonight. Hogwarts will provide for us."

"That it will." Thorne confirmed, "Although I think that we should sweep the school on the off chance that he's still here. I can set up patrols for that."

"No, your students will join those in the Great Hall." Dumbledore ordered.

"With all due respect Sir." Nova said this time, "Our wing is protected by a system set up very similar to Blood Wards, it's safer for the Guardians in the wing than it is in the Great Hall."

Dumbledore thought for a minute, "Ok, but I want some of the students in your wing as well if that can be arranged."

"We'll see, we could use the common room for that purpose." Thorne replied before turning to look at Su, "Battlemaster, prepare the rest of Alpha Team, and make sure Beta and Delta teams are ready on reserve." Su nodded before jogging off as Thorne turned to Professor Sprout, "I'm afraid I'll need to borrow Susan Bones for this night ma'am, with her and Harry we can strengthen the wards around Hogwarts so that if Sirius Black isn't here he can't escape and we can shut down parts of the castle to trap him."

Professor Sprout nodded in consent, "I'll get her to your wing." She replied before moving off. Snape and Flitwick took this as a sign to get their houses as well. Meanwhile McGonagall start shepherding the Gryffindors back downstairs to the Great Hall as Dumbledore turned to the rest of the professors who had gathered there. "Everyone start searching the Halls, as we're on seventh floor start at the top and work downwards." The teachers nodded before moving away as Dumbledore turned to Thorne and Nova, the only other two Professors still there. "I hope that the knife wasn't from your armoury." He said smiling.

Thorne quickly countered, "I'll gladly tell you that no five inch knife rests in our armoury, the length is unusual and suggest either a longer knife worn with age or a knife which primary use isn't as a piece of weaponry."

"Such as?" Dumbledore asked.

"Well, an eating knife for one. No one would have missed a knife tonight due to the feast." Thorne explained. "Anyway we'd better go and help set up our house."

"Indeed" Dumbledore replied, "Though we will need to talk soon about this Alpha, Beta and Battlemaster nonsense." With that the elderly headmaster walked away.

Thorne turned to Nova, "Well at least we were cryptic enough to get away with the teams."

Nova smiled as a reply, "I suppose the other job we completely forgot about was finding the fat lady."

Thorne smirked in reply, "No I merely let the bigger news go to our esteemed Headmasters head, I'm sure a group of students could find the fat lady in one of the portraits in Hogwarts, maybe Beta and Delta teams can come off reserve."

Nova's laughter echoed off the walls as she realized that they'd been able to pull another one up against Dumbledore, "Come on oh great trickster, we'd better get this plan into action."

**A/N: Please review. Slight one-upping on Dumbledore going on here, More will be explained on Alpha, Beta, Delta and Su in the next chapter which carries on right after this one. Sorry for the massive time jump but I really can't write normal school days, and I want to get to the Christmas Holidays soon when things will start to swerve away from Canon more. Oh and I haven't forgotten Buckbeak, I'm just putting the Hippogriff's a bit back in Hagrids schedule of teaching.**


	10. Chapter 9: The man to look for?

******A/N: Woot finally got this done. Sorry for taking so long with this one, but working on the history was quite fun and tiresome, and the chase scene went through several versions and I'm still not 100% happy with it. Quick Clarification for some things here.**

****"Speech" "_Spells" _'Thoughts' **They're the ones used in this chapter, as I use more I'll update the list.**_  
_

** But anyway, sorry for some text walls in this chapter but off we go.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, Harry Potter and all names, characters, places belong to J K Rowling, the Manchu Dynasty and the Tokugawa Shogunate belong to real life and actually I lied, all OC's (especially Thorne and Nova) belong to me. Not that i'm making money from this.**

**Chapter 9**

_Saturday 31__st__ October 1993_

Thorne and Nova set off for the Guardian Wing, meeting Susan on the way as the stairs reached the third floor. After a quick exchange of pleasantries the trio set off for the Guardian Wing once again. Inside was a state of slight panic as 16 third and fourth year students were in various stages of readiness, some even arguing about how ready being on reserve required them to be. After surveying the situation for a couple of seconds Thorne called out, ceasing all activity that was happening in the common room. "Right, Su, Harry you two get fully ready, bring your cloaks, weapons everything you need. Beta Team, you get fully ready, if you're needed we'll call you up. Delta Team, you're not needed at the moment. You've got three hours to rest before your on reserve and Beta Team is off, your two teams will swap every three hours so through tonight or until we've swept the school, whichever is first. First and Second years, get back to bed. Don't try and sneak out with any of our teams. Gamma team, if either of the first two teams are out you'll be called onto reserve. Understood?" as silence reigned over the ground floor Thorne nodded once before calling out "Then get to it." Thorne's words spurred the Guardians into action. Although they weren't an effective force by any means of the imagination, they had the ability and means to get there Thorne noted in his head, and of course that only came with practice and time, neither of which the Guardians had had even nearly enough of yet.

Five minutes later and in front of Thorne and Nova stood the rest of Alpha Team, Harry, Su and Susan had now donned the grey cloaks that were associated with the Guardians, and their weapons stood in the sheaths or holders either on their back or on their sides. Nodding once Thorne to show his approval, having now changed from the fun loving professor to the serious leader of the mission led the way out of the wing, his dual swords that now decorated his back bumped around slightly as he strode through the entrance way. Once the five were outside Thorne turned, "Right unless any of you happen to have tracking charms on Sirius Black we're going to do this the old fashioned way. We'll start on the ground floor and then work upwards, sweeping each floor in its entirety before moving on. I don't believe he'll hide in the dungeons but we will check them last just in case." Thorne got three nods in reply and a slightly worried look from Harry. "What is it Harry?" Thorne asked curiously, "You don't mean to say you've learnt the Tracking Charm?"

"No Sir" Harry replied, thinking of Thorne as his Professor still, 'it'd be one of the hard things to change in the minds of the students' Nova briefly thought to herself as she observed the two males from the background. "It's just that I've got something that maps the entire school, if Sirius Black is still in the school it should show where he is." Harry continued as he pulled out the empty form of the Marauders Map.

"Harry I think you've been had by the Weasely twins" Thorne said unimpressed. "It's just a piece of paper."

"Besides the fact that Professor Lupin gave me this and that it's meant to look like this until I say the password." Harry cheekily replied before pulling out his wand, holding it to the parchment he spoke. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." With that the map appeared after the five were welcomed by Moony, Prongs, Padfoot and Wormtail.

"Ok I take that back" Thorne said after a second of shock. "I was had by you and it's an absolutely brilliant bit of paper. So is he on it?" The last sentence was more serious as they all peered at the map. It was Susan that found him. "There, the second floor corridor where Mrs Norris was petrified." She said excitably whilst pointing it out.

"Thanks for the useless piece of information Susan, I highly doubt it'll come up in Trivial Pursuit anytime soon." Nova managed sarcastically, before having to rouse the three Hogwarts students from their memories of the event. "Come on, we need to get there."

Thorne, who had set off first, arrived at the corridor in a state of confusion. Instead of a human running in any particular direction he was met with a dog that looked like it had just finished its business next to the door of the girls bathroom. Turning his head back around the corner where Nova and the rest of the group were running to catch up Thorne called out, "Hey Harry, you sure he's around here, all I can see is a black dog." It took Thorne a couple of seconds of recognition, and then a couple more to react to the fact that said dog had started off away from him before Thorne mentally slapped himself around the head. "Dios, I am such an idiot." He muttered under his breath as he chased after the dog. Despite being in a peak physical form Thorne knew that the four legs of the dog would always be better than his two, and so despite running through the maze of corridors that made up the second floor Thorne had barely made any progress in catching up with the dog and as such when they reached the staircase the dog was able to get onto a stair case and have it moving before Thorne could reach it. Looking at the gap between the staircase and the dog Thorne swore before taking a couple of steps back.

It was to this that Nova and an out of breath Su Li caught up with the two of them, Susan and Harry panting behind them. Without even acknowledging that the backup had arrived Thorne sprinted forwards, vaulting over rail that stood at the top of the stairs, falling through the air Thorne felt the adrenalin rush through his veins, biting back the urge to let out a cry of pure joy, he pushed his body forwards, landing on the edge of the first floor landing Thorne tucked his legs in and rolled before leaping back up again, turning around as a very surprised Sirius Black looked at where the staircase was headed- right toward Thorne- and in a moment of thinking Sirius waited until the stair case was close enough before leaping at Thorne, who in response released a slight twitch of magic that was absorbed by his wrist holders, making them fire both his wands into his hands.

Nova could only watch from above as time itself seemed to slow. Despite the jolt of worry that had shot through her as Thorne had vaulted Nova knew deep down that her twin knew exactly what he was doing. From her vantage point she stood frozen as the dog-Sirius- leaped at Thorne who seemed to be stood still, not expecting the leap, seeing the small flash of magic that meant that Thorne's wands were now in his hand Nova let out a slight breath, although she knew that it wasn't over yet as the next few seconds proved. Somehow, Thorne had mistimed it and Sirius' leap had connected before he'd gotten off a spell, instead being knocked onto his back. Seeing Sirius start to escape Nova cursed thinking that he'd gotten away, although Thorne was already picking himself up, 'no doubt uttering a few choice words at the same time' Nova thought before she heard a "_Petrificus Totalus" _from next to her. Looking to her right she saw Su's face full of focus before watching the spell fly straight and true, hitting Sirius, even as he tried to run away. Clapping the Asian girl on the back Nova spoke quietly, although Susan and Harry heard as well, "And that's why you're the Battlemaster, not just because of that favour."

Noting both his and Susan's curiosity spiking Harry took a moment before letting his Gryffindor brashness ask the question. "What favour?"

Cursing to herself Nova answered, "I'll let Thorne tell you that but needless to say Su Li's ancestors were an invaluable ally during our time in China and at least half a dozen life debts were owned by one side to the other at one time, although it was more often Thorne than I." Nova looked like she was going to reveal more before the arrival of Thorne carrying the body-bound Sirius interrupted them, "So, no-one wants to take this dead weight off me?" Thorne asked light-heartedly missing the conversation in its entirety. Hearing Sirius whine at the 'dead weight' Thorne quickly put him under a Silencio as well. Finally noticing the looks on the rest of the group Thorne innocently asked, "What?"

"We're going to have to explain some of our history" Nova answered, "I may have spoken a bit too loudly."

"ah don't worry sis, it was going to get out eventually." Thorne answered, "Just which secret is it again?" Although Thorne sounded like he was asking it as a joke Nova knew he was deadly serious, the two of them had a large number of secrets and they couldn't be held forever.

"My one" Su stepped in, "Well that and the reason why we're not rushing the dog up to Dumbledore."

Thorne chuckled in response, "Very perceptive Su, Twenty points to the Guardians." Looking at the other faces, "What I'm serious, well no, the dog is but that's beside the point." Harry, Susan and Su groaned at the joke as Nova merely shook her head. "Come on, let's get him upstairs then." The female twin suggested "We can use Harry's map to avoid the rest of the staff."

)))))(((((

Ten minutes, two shortcuts and a slightly awkward trip through the Guardian Common room bought the group of five guardians and the dog into Thorne and Nova's personal living quarters. Putting Sirius in a spare bedroom that Thorne explained was meant for 'a special friend' although neither Thorne nor Nova would say any more on that. Whilst Nova went out to talk to the rest of Guardians about an abridged version of the nights events, which purposefully skipped over the part after Su's spell hit Sirius, Thorne sat down with the rest of the group to tell his story.

"Ok, so this begins in about 1645 with the start of the Manchu or Qing dynasty in China, for the magical it was the Manchu dynasty whereas it was the Qing dynasty for the mundane. As with the names despite the start of it where they were united the magical and mundane events change, but anyway, the Manchu Rebellion as it was called was putting feelers out into the rest of Asia to pull it up to the magical standard of Asia if not the world at that time, the Ming their predecessors were too out of touch, so anyway various other Asian nations allied with them, including the still-fledgling Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, who sent a decent number of Samurai along with two mercenaries, Nova and I who'd officially become part of the Shogunate, that's where Nova gained her Wakizashi after her sword broke in one of the battles during the rebellion. Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself."

Thorne summoned a glass of water before taking a sip of it, "aah that's better" he mumbled, " now whilst the Manchu Rebellion did have a large number of wizards on its side, hardly any of them had any military experience, especially as it was fractured it didn't have a real military structure. Anyway the Shogun decided that Nova and I would work better on one part of the front line that was seriously struggling, we were put under the command of one General Li of the Manchu army as it was called. It was mainly made up of Chinese workers turned soldiers but we were able to start turning them around, especially with the arrival of a couple of hundred Mongols who aided us. Anyway during the course of the Rebellion General Li ended up saving my life more times than I did his, so after we worked out the total life debts we owed each other we found I owed him two, the first Nova and I served out helping the Manchu Dynasty for seventy five years as front line soldiers, the second life debt condition was a bit more interesting, It was to aid all of his descendants in the battle for freedom and to train them as we had trained his army. It was from that Life debt that the idea of re-forming the Guardians here was born when we found out about Su, who is coincidentally the last child descendant of General Li. As is the way in some old families, even after we left to help Japan, and then India, America and all the other countries we served in the world the Li family remembered us and our life debt, as such when we arrived in Hogwarts Su owled her family about us, and then the evening after the resorting came to talk to us about the debts we still owed them. The position of Battlemaster always existed within the Guardians, although it used to be held by an elf, one of the few who chose to fight in the Guardians." Thorne's voice was tinged with sadness and regret at this point, "but after The Purge we couldn't find her or her body, from the records we gained we believe she died saving some of the innocent villagers as they escaped, providing a rear guard against about 70 or so Aurors, took them down as well if what was found is accurate." A lone tear fell down Thorne's cheek, before he wiped it away, "But that is in the past, and I suppose part of the reason we came back, but I can revisit the dead another time, for the story I was telling is almost finished, and an explanation into why we have an extra visitor in our wing will soon begin." Thorne looked up and saw Nova slip in, although he didn't react to it, and instinctively knew she'd been listening in for a while.

"Anyway, so we gave Su the position, not only because of the debt but also because as we said we know that a lot of Asian families actively practice their Family Magic and it is often tied into the use of Mundane Martial Arts which can be very useful in a fight, knowing how to fight unarmed is almost as important as knowing how to fight with a wand or a blade." Thorne took another drink from the glass of water that had sat in his hand, after putting the glass down on the floor next to his chair he rubbed his hands together and smiled, "Now enough history and onto the main event as to why we have Sirius Black instead of the Ministry, and for this I'm sure you'll all be interested to hear my reasoning behind it." Looking around Thorne saw everyone agree, "Right OK, I'm going to start off with what we think we know. It is said that Sirius betrayed Lily and James Potter to Voldemort before running off and killing thirteen muggles and Peter Pettigrew in a back alley the next day before allowing himself to get caught. This is what drew my attention on the first off. He was a part of the Marauders, a group of four students who terrorized Hogwarts when they were at school, the four of them were James Potter, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin"

"He's our defence professor" Susan blurted out.

"Exactly." Thorne replied, "Now Remus is strange on a number of accounts, first is that he is the only other member of the Marauders who Sirius Black didn't 'target' after falling to the Dark Side, surely he wouldn't of allowed himself to get caught so easily if he was targeting the Marauders as a whole, so why Pettigrew and James? Peter was an average wizard in almost every aspect apart from the fact he had very few friends and was only in the Marauders at James' insistence. James is the more mysterious one, from the sources both Nova and I have had access to we've found that the two were brothers in all but blood, in fact Sirius owed James because after Sirius was kicked out of House Black by his mother it was James that gave him shelter and his parents took him as one of their own. In that fact Remus Lupin was probably the one that Sirius would have most likely targeted due to his unique disposition which we're not allowed to disclose to students, but we can say he disappears once a month on full moon for a reason."

"He's a werewolf" Harry breathed out.

"Yep, bitten as a child" Thorne replied. "Last werewolf child to attend Hogwarts as well, but that is another interesting point for a later date. Anyway, the other interesting point about Remus Lupin is that after being off the radar for 12 years he comes back to Hogwarts the year Sirius Black escapes, and if the employment papers that Nova managed to get a look at are true then he got the position the day after Sirius' escape. Now that means he was either in one Sirius' escape and came here as the next part of the plan, which we seem to have disproven, otherwise he'd of known where Sirius is. Or he came here because of Harry, at Dumbledore's insistence I believe, to tell you about the Marauders. Anyway, here is where my real guess comes into play, I'm guessing that Pettigrew is alive and in the Gryffindor Boys dorm, third year I believe as well."

"How?" Harry asked "He's been dead for twelve years."

"All the Wizarding world has to prove he's dead is a finger and no body to attach it to. For all we know he could of cut it off and then escaped. But anyway here's my guess as to what happened. Somehow it wasn't Sirius but Pettigrew that betrayed your parents Harry, then when Sirius confronted him about it a couple of days later they duelled, over the course of the duel the twelve mundane were killed and then to throw everyone off the scent Pettigrew transformed into his Animagus and escaped."

"How do you know he has an Animagus?" Su asked.

"Ah, this is the interesting bit." Thorne replied smiling slightly, "Skip ahead twelve years and in the summer Sirius is sitting in his cell, he gets his daily subscription of the Daily Prophet and finds this picture on the front of it." Thorne pulled a photo out of his robes and passed it to Harry who recognized it before passing it onto Susan whilst Thorne continued, "Now, the Weasely family appear on the front of the Daily Prophet, but look what is on Ron's shoulder, a rat. Or more precisely a rat missing its front claw, which if it was human would be where Pettigrew's missing finger would be. On seeing this Sirius works himself into a rage, especially noting that the paper says that Ron is your best friend Harry, and that means that Pettigrew, your parents betrayer has been near you whilst you slept at Hogwarts, all it would take is a few minutes and you'd never wake again. In his fury Sirius leaves a vital clue, he rips a hole around Ron's shoulder where Pettigrew is, before making his escape in his Animagus form to escape the Dementors and the effects of their presence. This explains why he was trying to get into the Gryffindor Tower, not because as people will be saying that he didn't realize you'd moved and he was trying to kill you Harry, but because he was trying to kill Pettigrew, however it didn't go well and he ended up slashing the Fat Lady and trying to make his escape, why he waited I'm not sure, but we can find that out from him." Thorne looked around to see three undecided faces. "Ok I think I have one action left to show you I'm telling the truth. Harry, take out the map, and search the Gryffindor tower for Peter Pettigrew's name." Sure enough the name was found in the third year boys dorms. "Now comes the hard part." Thorne said looking at three faces who now believed him, although it would still take a while for their brains to digest it. "Now we've got to convince Sirius that we're on his side." With that Thorne stood up and looking at the three faces he turned, "I'll need you guys in there just in case, after all there's no time like the present and the sooner we get this done the sooner we can start on the official trial of Sirius Black."

"Don't you mean Re-trial?" Susan asked,

"No, a re-trial means that you've had a trial in the first place, Sirius Black hasn't been given that privilege, Dumbledore saw to that by sending him away without even questioning him." Thorne stated with little signs of emotion, "That's why he needs to go before other men and women lose parts of their life instead of spending it with their proper charges."

"What do you mean by that?" Harry asked.

"Let's go meet the man you were supposed to be bought up by Harry." Thorne replied, "I think a re-union is due."

**A/N: Hey again, please review. Sorry for the text walls again that this chapter brings with it, and I'm sorry that the second half has you listen to Thorne a lot, but the past is going to throw itself into the present quite a bit here so understanding parts of the Guardians past will be important. **

**Next Chapter should be out in a couple of weeks, prepare for the interview of Sirius Black, the aftermath of Halloween, including another Dumbledore confrontation (I like writing these) and the monotonous journey up to the Christmas Holidays, which will be very fun to write. **


	11. Chapter 10: Not as They Seem

**A/N: Hey guys, no idea how I got this chapter out this quickly but there you go. This chapter's slightly darker than the others and raises some interesting questions as part of the build up for a reveal in a couple of chapters time. Anyway, on with the story.**

**Discalimer; This is in no way mine, all the stuff you recognize as J K Rowlings is J K Rowlings everything you don't well...**

**Chapter 10**

_Sunday 1__st__ November 1993._

Sirius Black was confused to say the least. Instead of being carted off straight to the Ministry or Dumbledore he'd ended up in a quite comfortable bedroom. He'd been in there for a good thirty minutes going by the clock that was hung up above the mantelpiece, and it was from that clock that he realized that Halloween had ended five minutes ago, not that it made much difference for him, up until this point it was only another day that he wasn't sent back to Azkaban or killed, but somehow, for no real reason he could identify he felt that this day, All Saints day, would be better for him than it had been for the past thirteen years.

It started about five minutes later when the man who'd chased him entered the room with four other people. One he recognized as his godson Harry Potter, another looked similar to Amelia Bones and he guessed that this was her niece, he then studied the other three, one was a student, of Asian descent, whilst the other two figures were older, Professors most likely, probably the two mysterious History of Magic Professors who had literally appeared out of nowhere and taken Hogwarts by storm. Something was off about them though, thanks to his Grim Animagus he had a better sense of smell than most humans and there was something about these two that was just off, like they weren't fully human. Sirius shook his head slightly and focused back in on the male of these two figures who seemed to be just finishing his introductions.

"The Asian girl is Su Li, I'm known as Thorne, and this is my twin sister Nova." Thorne finished speaking, noticing that Sirius was focused once again. "You're probably wondering why you're here and not currently being dragged towards the nearest Dementor, yes?"

"Something along those lines" Sirius replied, obviously still not trusting Thorne.

"The whole reason is rather complex but I'll leave it at this for now." Thorne said, "I personally believe your innocent, and after going through my reasons with everyone else in this room they think so too. However I can't go up to the DMLE and give them all this information as I may have gone behind their backs to get some of it." Thorne scratched the back of his neck "That and broken a couple of laws at the same time." Thorne quickly jumped to the left as Nova went to hit him, however he didn't look where he was going and hit the wall instead. "You idiot." Nova berated him, "You know we weren't meant to reveal that yet."

"Technically you just revealed it." Thorne replied sticking his tongue out cheekily. "I never got caught, I'm just too good." Looking around the room at the confused faces Thorne sighed, "Right none of this goes out of this room but as of March this year we have 50 years of diplomatic immunity here in Britain. Part of the deal we made before we left Britain 500 years ago. That last part will probably be revealed to everyone in the Guardians at some point or another, it's good to know where you come from after all." The other four nodded, each wanting Thorne to continue but it seemed that he had decided to remain silent on that matter for now.

"Anyway, back to the reason we're here." Thorne then proceeded to explain to Sirius his reasons for believing the man was innocent, and after a couple of corrections, like the true extent of the duel shortly before Pettigrews 'death' Sirius nodded and spoke to them all. "Well it's thankful that at least some people believe me, but is there anything you can do to help me?"

The room was silent for a minute as Thorne and Nova looked at each other, a mixture of facial expressions and hand signals revealed a silent conversation that the two were having that was too fast for any of the others to read, and indeed caused Harry to question whether they could fully understand it as well. It was Nova that broke the silence. "Yes there is one thing that we can do, however it is risky and would involve you leaving the country, potentially forever."

Sirius mulled it over for a few seconds before asking "Would I still be able to see Harry. I mean I know I haven't really been a good example for him to follow, but he is my godson and…"

"Family is important" Thorne finished to a nod from both Sirius and Harry. "Yes, you two would still be able to see each other, although it would be hard during the school time. We can set up the Floo connection for it tomorrow, for tonight, or should I say until later this morning, you can use this room as your sleeping quarters, we can sort out clothes and stuff tomorrow. Now where you'll be going is a place called Guardian Manor, it's on our own private island in the Indian Ocean, and whilst there I'm sure we can get you training to become a Guardian if you so wish."

"A what?" Sirius interrupted.

"A Guardian, basically what Harry and the rest of these kids will be able to choose to be at the end of their education here. We're warriors, both in a physical and magical sense being able to utilise a mixture of magical and mundane weapons to our advantage to always give us an edge over our foes." Thorne replied.

"Who are exactly?" Sirius asked again.

"On the magical side of things they're Dark Lords and their wannabe's/followers, pureblood bigots, Metamorphagus, Veela or Succubi slave rings, other illegal enterprises, on the mundane side of things it more of the illegal stuff." Thorne replied, sighing slightly as he remembered the umpteen times before he'd been asked the same question. "And before you ask it the current record for Dark Lords is 25 to me, 24 to Nova and 14 to various Guardians throughout history. The original Guardians ran from 1090 to 1493 and had then a quick redo from 1940-1945. I think that covers all the questions normally asked."

"Uh-huh" Sirius nodded his head, realizing that he'd possibly found a sensitive area for Thorne seeing as he was clearly sounding more annoyed at the end. "So where do I sign up?"

Thorne breathed a sigh of relief, "Well I'm glad I don't have to Obliviate you." He smiled slightly that left Sirius unsure as to whether he was joking or not before Thorne continued. "As I said, tomorrow you'll go to Guardian Manor, there you'll start to receive your training until Christmas, at which point at least Nova and I, along with anyone who stays at Hogwarts over Christmas." At this point Thorne looked at the three students in the room pointedly "will come over for a few days to train and stuff, also I'll try and get a court set up for the ICW meeting on the Winter Solstice, if I can get that sorted out then we can hope that at least the world will recognize you as a free man, even if Britain itself doesn't."

"So I'll be tried by the ICW?" Sirius asked nervously.

"Don't worry about it, if we present the case I know of several countries who will already vote for us, and that's before a word has escaped my lips, after all the two of us are known to represent certain countries 'interest'."

"Certain countries?" Sirius questioned, "Which ones."

"Some of the bigger players, like America and France and quite a few medium players, Greece, Turkey, Japan, India and technically China although with recent changes I'm not sure what the state of their Wizarding government is. Probably better than yours though, the British Government is known as the most corrupt in the world for a reason." Thorne looked at Susan "Of course as always there are exceptions to the rule."

"Wow" was all Sirius was able to respond with. "So can we discuss further details tomorrow then, I haven't slept in a proper bed for thirteen years now."

Thorne smiled. "Of course, and we'd better get everyone else to bed as well." Turning to the three students in the room he continued, "Yes that means you three, it may be Sunday but it's going to be fairly busy and I don't want you asleep on your feet." Nodding slowly the three left the room as Su let out a single yawn. Thorne then turned to Sirius, "We'll be locking this door tonight just in case anyone tries to get in here OK" At Sirius' acceptance Thorne and Nova stepped out before the familiar clunking of a lock being turned came to Sirius' ears. Moving back and lying on the bed, noting just how comfortable it was Sirius thought about the decisions that not only he'd made that night but the ones that had been made for him as well. But still one thing bugged him, even as he dropped off to sleep, his heightened sense of smell thanks to Padfoot had smelt something off about Thorne and Nova, they weren't quite fully human, just what were they?

)))))(((((

It was amazing Su decided silently, and it could only be someone like Thorne who could pull this off. Here she was merely six and a half hours after she'd gone to bed earlier that morning, still rubbing the sleep out of her mind and trying to get her brain and muscles in gear so she could perform to her usual standard, whilst he was wide awake and taking on the entire 'Beta' Team as they'd been designated, six on one seemed to be unfair odds normally but given the circumstances it just wasn't enough for Thorne. Picking up her staff Su looked around, noting that Harry and Susan still weren't at the practice. Shrugging to herself she stretched her muscles all over once more before deciding to try and even the odds by fighting with the Beta team, but still the thought ran through her mind, especially considering how Thorne knew her ancestors, she didn't believe the story of the Hunt like most people did and this combined with Thorne's unusual levels of energy just pushed the question forward into her mind as she ran towards the seven 'He can't be just a human can he?'

)))))(((((

Of the two that weren't present at that training session one was still asleep whilst the other, awake and unable to get it off their mind any longer had headed up to the Owlery to send a message off. Susan stood there waiting for Mercury her owl to finish its breakfast before he headed out, a single letter to her aunt tied to his leg. She knew that Thorne and Nova probably wouldn't like this, but she didn't care at that point, technically she was still a Hugglepuff, not a Guardian and so they didn't have much authority over her, well not any more than any other Professor anyway. Susan knew that her Aunt would want to know about some if not all the events that transpired at Hogwarts the previous night, and probably wouldn't be informed about any of them by Dumbledore himself, of course she omitted certain facts like Sirius being caught and all that but she included Thorne's theory turned reality about what actually happened all those thirteen years ago and the mistakes made and what Dumbledore had covered up. Seeing Mercury fly off Susan set off back for her dorms, unaware that someone had been watching her the whole time, Nova turned visible again once Susan was clearly out eyesight, it looked like another of Thorne's predictions was right, however she didn't know what exactly Susan had put in her letter, not that it particularly mattered, either her or Thorne needed to see Amelia Bones at some point anyway and if Madame Bones needed to be Obliviated well so be it.

)))))(((((

It was a worn out Thorne and a slightly more energetic Nova that entered Sirius' room after the training session had finished. Sirius studied the both of them as they entered and his nose reaffirmed the thoughts he'd had last night. However before he could voice his thoughts Thorne started talking. "Right, OK Sirius we'll be coming through the Floo with you to introduce you to your trainer until Christmas, he's a good friend of ours and on loan from the Japanese Samurai force, which is a lot like the Aurors here in Britain. We'll also leave you in the capable hands of Fronce and Huxon who are our two House Elves, they'll show you your living quarters whilst there and give you a quick showing of the Manor, or at least the bits your allowed to enter at the moment." Giving Sirius a look Thorne continued, "I know who you are Sirius Black and I'm going to warn you and say if Fronce and Huxon don't introduce you to an area don't go into it, don't even look into it understand?" Sirius nodded. "Good because I want your oath, magical if need be that you won't."

Sirius gulped before giving Thorne an oath that he wouldn't enter any areas he wasn't shown by the House Elves, he was starting to wonder about what he had really gotten himself into this time, but before he could reconsider his decision from last night he saw the fireplace light up with the green flames that signified a Floo connection. Thorne went first, followed by Sirius with Nova bringing up the rear. The trio were deposited into a large sitting room area, the walls were a dark blue whilst the carpet was a deep aqua blue, and all the furniture in the room was the same aqua blue as the carpet with gold trimmings, in some cases Sirius noted, actual gold. After looking around the room his eyes focused on the three beings that stood in front of him, two were House Elves whilst the man in the middle was dressed in ceremonial armour that was worn traditionally by Samurai, a katana rested on his belt and a quiver on his back. "Good to see you "Thorne said bowing to the man, as Nova repeated the gesture.

"And you too." The man replied as he too bowed.

"Right then introductions" Thorne said, "Sirius Black this is Head Samurai Takashi Minamoto of the Japanese Samurai force, currently on loan to us to supervise your training. Takashi this is Sirius Black Head of the most Ancient and Noble house of Black and your pupil for now." Thorne smirked at the last four words, as several thoughts ran through Sirius' head, one of the more prominent ones was 'Head Samurai, how on earth do you just loan out a head of the policing force to two people, just who are they? Just who are Thorne and Nova and what games are they playing?'

)))))(((((

It was mid morning that Amelia Bones, head of the DMLE received the letter from her niece. Susan had been keeping her up to date with the changes within Hogwarts and on the Guardians and their training. Amelia herself had been intrigued by the Guardians and had as such tried to find their records on the system, after a couple of months of searching she could only find fleeting references to them, crediting them for the fall of at least 20 Dark Lords in Britain up until just before 1500 were all traces of them stopped, although rumours of their 500 year exile seemed to make sense from the records, although why they were exiled was unrecorded. Still opening the letter Amelia read it, as it regaled her with how they had chased Sirius Black through the corridors of Hogwarts and how he was in actuality a Grim Animagus. This last part shocked Amelia as she realized just how he'd not only escaped but also evaded all of their traps to catch him. Of course unbeknown to her he was currently on an island on the other side of the world underneath possibly the most advance and/or lethal ward system in the world but that didn't stop her from sending out the 'vital' information to her Aurors. The last part of the letter left her confused, Susan had written that it seemed like Thorne and Nova would have preferred Susan to stay over Christmas, and that certain events would happen during the holiday. This piqued Amelia's natural curiosity and even as she replied to the letter a single thought ran through her mind. 'Who are the Guardians and just what sort of force are we dealing with.'

)))))(((((

The last thing Thorne expected when he got back from Guardian Island was to discover that Dumbledore had called him to his office. Entering alone Thorne prepared himself for another verbal sparring match as he sat across from Dumbledore, waiting for the old man to start the conversation.

"Aah here you are Thorne, I was wondering when you were going to arrive, I must ask though where you were at Breakfast time this morning."

"Yes, sorry about that Dumbledore" Thorne replied, "Fronce, my House Elf alerted me saying that I had a visitor from the Japanese Samurai, there version of Aurors, who wanted to speak to me." All true, although the fact he'd invited Takashi there was left out.

"And if I may inquire what did this Japanese Samurai want?" Dumbledore asked honestly curious.

"Yes, he was wondering whether I could take some time off in January to take my normal annual class at their training academy, I basically offer my skills for training practice and then help the years recruits improve their fighting styles." Thorne replied, also true. "I said that I would as I'm sure that Nova is more than capable of handling a day or two without me." Truth once again, merely warped slightly, Thorne had already agreed to it before he'd even left for Britain over the summer.

"I see. Now I wanted to talk to you about last night."

"Aah yes, I'm sorry to say the mutt surprised me, I underestimated him and by chance he escaped. Minding you, we all underestimate people at some point in our lives don't we."

"Yes well, at least you were able to find and keep up with him." Dumbledore replied.

"Yes, that is the case." Thorne answered, surprised that Dumbledore was playing this conversation surprisingly straight, but this made him ever more cautious about what exactly Dumbledore was saying.

"But surely if the teacher fails how can he help the student?" Dumbledore asked after a minute or two of silence.

Thorne smiled, here came the fight he was looking for. "You want me, us to stop training the Guardians due to one mistake? If it had cost lives then yes I would understand, but instead it has given our forces a vital clue. But what surprises me Dumbledore is that you knew Sirius Black very well and yet you somehow forgot to mention to anyone that he was an Animagus."

"You must let an old man have his mistakes." Dumbledore replied.

"And yet you do not allow me, an older man than you to make any?" Thorne fired back inwardly grinning.

"Yes, yes but in any case you should stop all this Guardian training, it is worthless, there's no danger to be had here. If there is, well there are certain ones of us who can defeat it like last time."

Thorne stood up at this shaking his head "You must know old man that this is not your time, it has not been your time for a good thirty years and yet you still hold onto the position as 'Leader of the light' by its throat and refuse to let anyone else have it. Let me warn you this. Once about 500 years ago two people were in the same situation as you, they thought they knew best, and whilst they didn't use as much political power as you do they certainly had it. However they grew blind of the rest of the world outside of sight and forgot what was important, as it was they were lucky that they received warning that there time was overdue and they and their allies fought the government is a series of very bloody battles, until they finally realized that all they had done was waste thousands of lives, however after surrendering the government saw fit to try and kill them off completely and began to murder all those who had sided with them, and so began one last fight, they won but at a terrible price, the Hogsmeade Valley lay in ruins and ashes and Hogwarts itself was left partly in ruins. But they left their home country in exile for 500 years, and now they have returned. Trust me form experience Albus Dumbledore, your time is up and we were lucky to escape with our lives, the only question now is how many lives will you drag down with you, and how many more will be ruined because of you. Step back and let the next generation take charge or else you will not live to see it." Thorne stalked over to the door, one hand pushing it open as he turned around once again. "We will continue to train for as long as you refuse to see that your time is up and your time as a supporter not a leader has begun, and even then we will continue to train them until all the years you have wasted have been redeemed, we do not do this for you, we do this to seek our own redemption." With that Thorne left and slammed the door behind him, leaving a confused and irate Albus Dumbledore behind "How dare he talk to me like that. Just who does he think he is?"

**A/N: Quick thanks to TheLastZion and his 'Return of the Marauders' that's where I got the idea of Succubi from, and the slave rings (although they won't actually appear in this story). Love to have some more reviews but thanks to Ceo55 and Starboy454 for your reviews on almost every chapter. It's good to know that my work is read. I'm holding out on Pettigrew for the moment, and the next chapter will hold more background information on Thorne and Nova whilst bringing us up to the Christmas Holidays for the school. 'til next time.**


	12. Chapter 11: The Court's Order

**A/N: Hey guys, I can't believe I've gotten another chapter out this quickly, but here we go. Big thanks to ElfOwl who reminded me about one of the plot points I had overlooked, you'll see the start of that at the beginning of this chapter. Tried to make this chapter as non-cliche as possible but I'm fairly sure I've fallen for at least one on the way. Anyway, after a quick disclaimer (JK Rowling owns Harry Potter not me) on with the story.**

**Chapter 11  
**_Saturday 5t__h__ December 1993._

After the incidents on Halloween life began to go back to normal for the school, the weekend after the incident had been the first Hogsmeade Weekend of the term and as the Guardians paired up an unusually irate Ronald Weasley could be observed as Hermione left the hall in the company of Harry, it seemed or so Thorne noted that Ron still thought he was part of that trio despite them not having any real contact with him through the year. In fact on one occasion he had even been rebuffed by Hermione as he tried to strike up a conversation with her. The fact that he insulted Daphne and Tracey as they walked with her seemed to be beside the point from Ron's POV anyway.

It was thereby to almost everyone in the Guardians and Gryffindors great surprise when the week before the next Hogsmeade weekend Hermione and Ron had started growing closer to each other and decided to go there together. However that seemed dwarfed when rumours spread that Harry wasn't going with them, instead spending time with Ginny Weasley, a girl who despite being saved by Harry last year had made no real attempt to contact him at all, mostly keeping to herself instead.

Watching from his position at the Teachers table in the Great Hall, Thorne pulled himself out of his thoughts when he felt Nova tap him on the arm. "Is it me or does something not look right here" she whispered to him, nodding her head towards Dumbledore who seemed to be smiling and nodding his head in approval every time he looked at either of the two youngest Weasley's, Harry or Hermione.

"I think the answer is not to look but to taste." Thorne whispered back in reply, taking a sip of his pumpkin juice as if to make the point clearer. "It's not that hard to mix potions into drinks after all, we've done it quite a few times, especially with those fizzy drinks, what did we call them, something like Dr Pepper-Up."

"Yeah something like that." Nova replied, smiling at the memory, "They turned out to be quite a success."

"Indeed." Thorne said before taking another slice of toast, "and if you look, the four of them always seem to sit in almost exactly the same place, and so with the platters there as well, whilst putting it into food is harder, you could mix it into the spread on the toast or something like that, make it so it only activates when a certain person consumes it and Hey Presto, result." Nova nodded at this, before looking to see if any other teachers were looking there way, none were as they knew the twins often had private conversations between themselves. So if you know this much why aren't you stopping it?" she asked her twin brother curiously, she knew that Thorne was always the more brash of the two, but ever since returning to Hogwarts he'd been more reserved, almost as if the memories from last time were making him so, just in case he tried to repeat his mistakes.  
"Because there are several factors that I need to test, the first is what the container vessel is and the second is how many people are being given it. It's obvious Ron want Hermione, but Harry and Ginny? I don't see it."  
"So you're saying that there are three people being dosed here?" Nova asked.

"Indeed" Thorne replied again, "But there's more to Ginny than we know, when the resorting was going on she looked like she wanted to go up but somehow couldn't. Unfortunately we can't force a resorting unless the student lets us and I don't think she will."  
"So someone is messing around with Ginny to get Harry. I know Dumbledore wants to keep Harry, but potentially sacrificing someone else to do that?"  
"It could work if he wanted to be resorted back into Gryffindor." Thorne replied. "Remember this is all theory anyway, we know from the tales about last year that Ginny is an accomplished liar and actor."

"We just don't know which side she's playing" Nova finished for him.

"Indeed." Thorne said once again. "I hope we can separate them over Christmas though, as much as I hate to sound like a manipulator we do need them to be kept apart."

"Especially with Harry's inheritance on the line" Nova continued.

Thorne promptly face palmed himself. "Of course, that's what Dumbledore wants, he must have Harry's political power, and if Harry finds out about it himself he'll remove his support from Dumbledore unless he's got a reason to trust him."

"And the Weasley's are the perfect reason." Nova finished Thorne's sentence once again.

"Exactly." Thorne said before thinking for a minute or two. "Unless I'm horribly rubbish with making connections there's something between Harry and Hermione right." Nova nodded before allowing Thorne to continue. "Then if we try to push them together, even temporarily to sort out this incident then that will solve one problem. If this is all over political power which I think it might be then I'll need to get Harry a pureblood to teach him their politics else he's going to be a sitting duck so to speak. I think I know who to ask, I just need to confirm if she's willing."

"She is?" Nova asked. Thorne simply replied by motioning his fork towards Daphne Greengrass. "With her father being who he is she should be perfect."

"Agreed." Nova simply replied. "So anything else to plan?"

"Nothing much, we'll move onto the next stage of the Ability next term, and we've got to decide on a topic for History of Magic, although Su has given me an idea for one. Then the only other thing is when are we going to start teaching them how to handle ranged weapons?"

"next year" Nova replied with a final tone. "It'd be too soon otherwise."

"OK." Thorne agreed. "So ready to visit Padfoot and our friends in the courts of the ICW?"

"As I'll ever be." Nova replied, being the first of the twins to get up and leave the hall.

)))))(((((

"Order ORDER." The Chief Judge of the ICW called out as Sirius Black was bought into the room. As soon as silence was pertained the judge continued. "Due to unlawful imprisonment in his home country Sirius Orion Black of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has come to the courts of the ICW in order to find justice. He has been in custody for just over thirteen years the most part of it in Azkaban, which is illegal in its own right. Despite breaking out of the prison he cannot be bought under arrest for that as there is no such crime for him to have committed. Now, his defendants for this case are Special Agents Thorne and Nova, whilst Lord Nathaniel Greengrass the British representative of the ICW will stand as the prosecutor. To remove unfair bias will all those who represent countries allied to either Britain or Special Agents Thorne and Nova please move to the viewing Gallery." This left a total judging panel of about 160 countries. Thorne and Nova entered the room first, then followed by Lord Greengrass as they took up their formal positions Thorne signalled to the Judge that he wanted to speak.

"Defence recognized." Were the two words that allowed him to do so.

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the ICW the prosecutor and I were able to discuss the matters and the case of Sirius Orion Black and have come to the conclusion that if allowed by this body the use of Veritaserum will be used to determine the truth behind that night and Sirius Blacks part in it."

"All in favour" the Judge asked, seeing a resultant majority of hands up he continued. "Motion passed; Veritaserum will now be bought in from the stores."After a five minute wait a lone figure came in holding a small vial of Veritaserum which, after being identified as such by the Judge, Thorne and Lord Greengrass was given to Sirius before Thorne and Lord Greengrass started the questioning, having previously decided to alternate questions.

"What is your name?"

"Sirius Orion Black."

"When were you born?"

"October 13th 1959."

"Both facts check out, start with the proper questioning." The Judge said, before leaving the defence and the prosecution to their duties.

"Were you the Potter's Secret Keeper to their home in Godrics Hollow in 1981?" Thorne started off, making it specific as possible.

"No I was not." Came the reply.

"Do you know who was the Secret Keeper for the Potters in 1981 and if so who it was?" Nathaniel's first question followed up on Thorne's.

"Yes, it was Peter James Pettigrew."

"Have you ever carried the Dark Mark or knowingly followed the orders of one Tom Marvolo Riddle A.K.A. Lord Voldemort or any one of his followers, marked or otherwise.?"

"No I have not."

"This proves that Sirius Orion Black was not responsible for the betrayal of the Potters on October 31st 1981." The Judge interrupted again. "Now move onto the events following the death of the adult Potters surrounding Peter Pettigrew."

"One more question if I may?" Thorne asked.

"Very well." The Judge replied.

"Thank you, Sirius did you know who cast the Fidelus charm on Godrics Hollow in 1981?"

"Yes it was Albus Dumbledore."

"So he would have known that Peter Pettigrew was the Secret Keeper?" Thorne quickly got a follow up question in.

"Yes he would have."

"Thank you for letting me ask the extra questions." Thorne said towards the Judge.

"Now onto the events following the death of the adult Potters surrounding Peter Pettigrew. We will look into the actions surrounding Albus Dumbledore at a later date." The Judge said as a reply.

Nathaniel took up the questioning first this time. "What exactly happened when you arrived at Godrics Hollow on the night of the 31st?"

"I entered the cottage, upon entering I found James' dead body and wept over him like the brother he as to me. Moving upstairs I came across Lily who was also dead and I wept over her as well until I heard a baby crying, and when I looked into the cot I saw Harry still very much alive. I picked him up to take him to my home as I knew James and Lily would want me to when Albus Dumbledore appeared in the room next to me. He cast some sort of spell on me, although I did not hear what it was, the next thing all I could think about was getting revenge on Pettigrew."

"The actions of one Albus Dumbledore are noted and once again will be investigated at another date." The judge decreed. "Continue with the questioning."

"When and where did catch up with Pettigrew?" Thorne asked, this was just officially as he already knew the answer.

"I found him in an alleyway in Birmingham on November 3rd 1981." Sirius replied.

"Did you know that there were Auror's nearby?"

"yes, I was an Auror back then and some of my team were helping me track down Pettigrew, I merely reached him first."

"Did you cast any spells on the evening of November 3rd 1981 towards either the muggles in the alley or towards one Peter Pettigrew?"

"I did not."

"Did Pettigrew cast any spells on the evening of November 3rd 1981?" Nathaniel asked.

"Yes he cast a Reducto towards the Muggles and a Diffindo on his own finger before escaping."

"How did he escape?" Thorne asked.

"He is a Rat Animagi and used that to escape into the sewers."

"Why were you crying and repeating over to yourself 'it's all my fault, James and Lily are dead and it's all my fault?'"

"Because I believed that I was the most obvious choice for a secret keeper and because we thought Remus Lupin was the traitor to our group because of his affliction we made Pettigrew the secret keeper."

"Is there anything else you would like to say Sirius Orion Black?" the Judge questioned.

"Yes, three things, first is that Peter Pettigrew is currently alive in Hogwarts in his Rat form under the name of Scabbers as a pet to the youngest male of the Weasley Family, secondly the only crime I am guilty of is being an unregistered Animagus, I have the money on hand if you want the fine now nd thirdly your Veritaserum just ran out on me."

"Very well, the questioning is over. All those who hold Sirius Black guilty for serving a Dark Lord raise your hands." Only one hand was raised. "All those who think Sirius Black is innocent." The majority raised their hands. "Sirius Black you are innocent of serving a Dark Lord. Now for his second supposed crime, all those who think Sirius Black is guilty of killing thirteen muggles and a wizard?" this time there were a few more hands but nowhere near even an eighth of the people allowed to vote. "All who think he is innocent." Once again the majority raised their hands for this one. "Sirius Orion Black you have been found innocent of the two charges levelled against you by your government whilst you have admitted to one minor charge, as you were prepared for it you can sign the international registers and hand the fine in on your way there. Sirius Orion Black you are a free man now, and I am sure Lord Nathaniel Greengrass will alert the English Ministry of this court's outcome. Special Agent Thorne as a result of this court's outcome and the allegations made by Sirius Black under Veritaserum the ICW gives you power to search Hogwarts for the Rat Animagi known as Scabbers."

"Thank you Chief Judge, Nova and I will head out right away to capture the criminal." Thorne replied bowing before heading for the door. "I will be at the ICW meeting on New Year's day if people need to contact me."

)))))(((((

Despite their urgency to leave the ICW and find Pettigrew Thorne and Nova were still set upon by allies, both of themselves, who mainly wanted to ask for help in one form or another, or allies of Britain who wanted to know the truth of what had happened there with Sirius Black. Whichever one it was Thorne and Nova brushed off as many of them as possible and answered the few they felt had to as quickly as possible before finally meeting up with Sirius himself (who looked relatively relaxed as if he hadn't been bothered at all) about an hour later at one of the exit points. "Hopefully from that gathering you can see who we are." Thorne answered Sirius' unanswered question which he had asked before the court session had begun. "And yes there is more, but we'll tell you when the time is right. Now let's get back to Guardian Manor, we need to pick some stuff up from there before we head back to Hogwarts."

"What kind of stuff?" Sirius asked

"Potions mainly, I believe someone is trying to screw around with you godsons mind."

)))))(((((

After a quick journey to the kitchens before dinner Thorne and Nova now handled the information that three doses of love potion were being put into the drinks although the elves couldn't tell the twins who's they were exactly, what type of love potion it was or who had told them to put them in there because of some sort of bond that said person had put up. Still the two were talking about it between themselves as the students filed in to dinner."So why can't we act on it now." Nova hissed at Thorne after he refused to act upon the information they now held.

"Simple. One, is we don't know for sure if its Ginny, the third person could be Pansy Parkinson for all we know. Two is that it'll be suspicious if someone suddenly stops acting that way, and as time goes on the love potions will need to get stronger and more illegal to make sure they don't develop a resistance to them, and as the love potions get stronger it becomes more noticeable that someone is under the control of a potion. So simply we wait for now and then strike when the time is right, but not too late in case they get addicted."

Nova nodded grudgingly but could say no more for now as the majority of the students were now in the Great Hall, just about to start their meal.

"Headmaster, I have a few words for the school before we start eating." Thorne said quite loudly to Dumbledore so that all the teachers, and a few of the professors could hear him.

"Ok, just make it quick" came the response from a very tired sounding Headmaster.

"Thank you." Thorne said before standing up and raising his voice. "Good Evening Hogwarts, this afternoon Nova and I were called to Malta where the courts for the ICW reside, there in the afternoon session we had on trial one Sirius Orion Black." Thorne stopped to let the news settle in. "He has apparently been hiding on a family owned tropical island since being seen at Howarts, but that is beside the point. On the investigation into the case of Sirius Black the ICW found that he was not given a trial in the first place and thereby when the ministry of magic sent him to Azkaban in 1981 without a trial they did so breaking several international laws. For those of you with parents in the ministry I am assured that my political compatriot Lord Nathaniel Greengrass, the British representative of the ICW and prosecutor of the case will have or already has given this news to the Ministry. Anyway after giving Sirius Orion Black the trial he rightfully deserved thirteen years ago he has been found innocent of all charges apart from being an unregistered Animagus, the penalty for which is a fine he paid upfront after the court session. Now from the information gleaned at the trial we have found out two very important bits of information. One that Peter Pettigrew is still alive in the form of an animal as an unregistered Animagus, and two the real reason that Sirius Black journeyed to Hogwarts was to find Peter Pettigrew, and so as Guardian of Hogwarts I ask that all pets be bought to the Great Hall for examination after dinner. Thank you." With that Thorne sat down and let the whispers take over as the students started eating.

)))))(((((

After dinner whilst everyone was getting their pets Thorne approached Harry as he made his way to the Guardian Dorms. "Hey Harry, you have the Marauders Map on you?" he asked. Thorne had been explained about it by Sirius and then passing said information onto Harry.

"Yes Sir." Harry replied, pulling out the map before whispering "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." As he watched the map truly open up he spotted the dot marked 'Peter Pettigrew' and cursed. "Err Thorne." He said nervously.

"Yeah Harry what is it?" Thorne replied, it only took one look at the map to get his answer, there scurrying towards the Whomping Willow was a dot labelled Peter Pettigrew. Cursing heavily Thorne called to Harry, "Make sure to cast a Reparo after me."

With that and a thoroughly confused Harry Thorne launched himself through one of the windows, his words then making sense to Harry as he watched his professor turn into a Golden Eagle when he was level with the second floor before Thorne started flying around the castle towards where the Whomping Willow rested. The one thing that both Thorne and Pettigrew didn't realize until later that night was that there above the clouds the full moon had started to shine.

**A/N: dun dun dunnnn. Sorry felt like putting that in. What do you guys think? Please review, also do you think I should let Pettigrew escape? or should he meet his justice now? either way next chapter is where we swing away from canon, an epic encounter in a 'haunted' shack, a start to the lessons in politics and the epic adventures that will lie ahead in the Christmas Holidays. Stay tuned.  
**


	13. Chapter 12: From Aftermath to Terms End

**A/N: Hey Again, Solved the Pettigrew problem in a way you may not expect, hope its liked, we also see the true incompetence of the ministry and the mysteries surrounding Thorne and Nova continue to grow.  
Just a quick response to one of the reviews for the previous chapter, I respect all of them and thank you for them, I just felt like this one should be answered.  
Chipmunk1964- I could do that, but that's what happens in the "Generic" Manipulative Dumbledore stories, and i'm going for something quite different to that.  
****Standard Disclaimer- I get tired of typing out new ones each time, and they've probably already been done by one of the many writers on this site, see one of the previous 12 chapters for details.**

**Chapter 12**

_Saturday 5__th__ December._

Thorne flapped his wings steadily as he soared towards the Whomping Willow, his eyes firmly on the lone rat also scurrying the same way, although he had to control his natural animal instincts to div, catch and eat the rat, he wasn't sure if he could before reaching the willow anyway, after all Pettigrew, or Wormtail as he was called in his Animagus form had a head start that not even Thorne could fully over take. Flapping his wings once more he felt an updraft carry him slightly higher as he let out a call, piercing through the silence of the night, hoping that using his hunting call would stall Wormtail by making him try to hide or at least stop and shiver in fear, as much of his prey had done when he'd been in this form previously, of course none of his prey had been an Animagi before so Thorne had no idea if it would work. Starting his dive as he neared the Whomping Willow Thorne heard a distinctive hunting call from over near the main entrance to Hogwarts, if an Eagle could smile Thorne would have done so now, knowing that a certain Peregrine Falcon was incoming, although he'd probably never see her, she'd dive steeply from a much higher altitude as his.

As his eyes scanned the ground for Wormtail again Thorne saw the rat run down beneath one of the roots, making a mental note of which one Thorne nearly cursed as a branch zoomed over his head, missing by centimetres. It was obvious he'd now reached the Whomping Willows range as he dived towards the ground, twisting and turning out of the way of the branches, one time ending up flying sideways through a small gap between two of the branches Thorne cursed as his luck ran out and a branch snapped into his right wing, crying in pain as he felt his wing bones break Thorne fell to the ground before transforming back into his human form, his left arm instinctively holding his broken and useless right arm as he put a shield up around him to protect himself from the branches as he lay on the ground, hoping his quicker-than-normal healing would kick in soon.

Looking upwards Thorne saw a sign of relief, he knew that he couldn't chase after Wormtail in this state but spiralling down from the high altitudes at roughly 200mph (320km/h) was Nova, as she entered the Whomping Willows range she changed back into her human form, slowing down massively as she landed on one of the branches of the Whomping willow. Focusing for a split second she disappeared from normal sight and as such the Willow continued its attacks on Thorne shield, which after a second of almost fracturing he remembered and put more energy into it. Nova only appeared once more, this time to Thorne inside his shield. "Get out of here" he called, "I'll be fine, you get Pettigrew before he escapes." Seeing the determination in his eyes Nova knew that there was no way she'd be able to get Thorne to change his mind and so becoming invisible once more she sprinted towards one of the roots which Thorne had been looking at, the emotions that crossed their twin bond allowed her to know which one it was as Thorne felt relieved when she picked the right one.

Sliding underneath the root Nova came into a passage way, looking around she saw a knot in the tree, pushing it she saw the branches cease their attacks on Thorne, and with a quick flicker his shield was down and her twin was moving away, his right arm held firmly against his chest. Reminding herself of the reason she was down here Nova started off, the boot marks left in the soft mud that made up the floor of the passage told Nova that Pettigrew was back in human form, probably because he could move quicker in it. Either that or because he'd seen Thorne go down and didn't realize that Nova was following. Continuing down the passageway she found herself at a trapdoor in the roof, the passage obviously ended a couple of metres down from it and seeing no other place to go Nova prepared to go up. Putting both her hands on the trapdoor to open it she pushed, feeling it open surprisingly easily. Rendering herself invisible Nova lifted herself up out of the passageway to receive one of the shocks of her life.

)))))(((((

Thorne staggered up to the entrance doors into Hogwarts not having the ability to push the doors open physically due to the break and indeed the severity of it if his quick check was anything to go by, Thorne willed the doors open using his magic, using a variation of the banishing charm so that he didn't blow the doors right off the hinges. Entering inside he saw the surprised faces of most of the school as they congregated in the entrance hall with their pets. "Sorry about all the fuss." Thorne grunted out, "But you're pets aren't needed anymore, the suspect is currently being chased by Nova. As the students left, some understanding that the Animagus could have escaped, others annoyed at all the fuss Thorne's voice rang out through the hall once more, "And someone get me a bloody healer."

)))))(((((

"Well I wasn't expecting this" Nova muttered to herself glad that the man's whimpering was loud enough to cover her voice. She'd entered into the main room of thee shack from the trapdoor to find a fully grown werewolf towering over a smaller, almost chubby man who she guessed was Pettigrew, the only thing separating the two was a thin Protego that obviously belonged to Pettigrew. Thankful for her invisibility although she knew she could do nothing to hide her scent, with the only thing stopping the werewolf from finding her being Pettigrews overwhelming scent of fear and possibly something else that Nova really didn't want to think about. Slowly Nova pulled out one of her wands from its wrist holder. She'd left her weapons behind in her quarters thinking that she wouldn't need them tonight, but her wands were always on her person, she mentally sighed, not daring to actually make any sound. 'Looks like it's time to do things the old fashioned way' she thought, absent mindedly drawing her second wand as well, knowing the usefulness of being able to fire two spells at once. Knowing she'd only have one attempt at not only subduing the werewolf but also stopping Pettigrew from escaping Nova prepared to fire her spells as she watched Pettigrew's shield weaken until it started to flicker.

Acting as soon as the Protego could no longer hold Nova sent off her two spells, "Argementum Incarcerous, Stupefy" she called out watching as the first spell sent silver chains flying towards the werewolf tying it up and leaving it unable to move as it toppled over from the momentum of the chains. The second spell flew towards Pettigrew, however to both his and Nova's surprise the spell never hit him, his shield, whether through some last minute bout of strength or accidental magic flickered to life one last time to intercept the stunner. Reacting first Nova sent out a blanket of stunning spells, making sure that the whole area around Pettigrew was covered in case he tried to turn into a rat again. Pettigrew for what he was worth did try and escape, however as he transformed back into Wormtail the rat he was hit by one of the stunners rendering him unable to move as Nova stalked towards her fallen prey.

It was as Nova stalked towards Pettigrew that she made the potentially lethal mistake. In her rush to capture the Animagi she had forgotten about the other hostile in the Shrieking Shack and just how close she was walking to the werewolf's fully functioning mouth. The werewolf, for it was in control at this point rather than the man it usually was, would have howled with joy if its mouth was not already engaged with biting the woman that it saw in front of him. Nova however was the one, who howled out of the two in a cry of pain as the werewolf released its hold on her lower leg, in her pain she half-jumped to the side kicking the stunned Wormtail out from his position in the corner and it was all she could do but watch in slight horror as the werewolf gratefully moved its head towards its meal, no matter how small it was. Finally able to react Nova sent out a high powered stunner that hit the bound werewolf, causing it to stop its attempt to eat the rat. Hoping it was quickly enough Nova limped over to where the stunned werewolf's head lay, carefully opening its jaws as she looked inside its mouth. To her horror she saw the rat, bitten in half with only it's top half remaining carefully summoning the top half out of the mouth Nova couldn't help but know that Wormtail had been unable to survive that and having died in his rat form would stay that way from now on. Hovering the half of the dead rat behind her Nova looked for the trapdoor out of the Shack before limping towards it, down the hatch and back towards the Whomping Willow, knowing that the silver chains and stunner would wear off the werewolf by the time morning came.

It was fifteen minutes later in the Hospital Wing that Nova's story came to light. After a dressing down from Thorne who went over every mistake she made he then clapped her on the shoulder with his good hand remarking "At least you weren't taken down by a bloody tree. His other arm was in a sling currently being repaired by Skele-Gro after an argument between Madam Pomfrey and himself had been lost and she'd decided to regrow that bone rather than leave it to their advanced natural healing as he had called it. With Nova's wounds however came a different fight, as Nova had to reveal that she had indeed been bitten by a werewolf ut took a full half hour for Nova and Thorne joint to convince Madam Pomfrey that Nova wouldn't transform on a full moon even taking advantage of standing her next to one of the windows for five minutes whilst the full moon shone upon her. It was late that night when the two finally got to sleep, however what they'd gone through that night wouldn't prepare them for the next morning.

)))))(((((

The first shock that morning came not to Thorne and Nova but instead to Madam Pomfrey when she came to inspect their wounds. "Their completely gone" she exclaimed, as both Thorne and Nova rolled their eyes. "You see Ma'am" Thorne stated "We have advanced natural healing what would normally take days to heal takes our bodies only hours." Still shaking her head in disbelief Pomfrey eventually let them both go, just in time for the twins to get to breakfast as the post owls delivered the morning papers, the main headline shocking all who read it.

_**ICW corrupted and frees Mass Murderer – Ministry of Magic refuses to believe the verdict.  
**__by Rita Skeeter_

_It was announced just yesterday evening by ICW representative Nathaniel Greengrass that in the morning the re-trial for notorious escaped mass murdered Sirius Black was bought before the ICW court of law. The court was then emptied of all those allied to Britain before the trying of Sirus Orion Black began. How he made it to the ICW courts remain unclear, although the only way for someone of his status to do so would be through bribery and blackmail of high end representatives of other countries._  
_Despite valiant efforts the prosecutor, our own Nathaniel Greengrass who we can safely say had nothing to do with Black getting to the court, Sirius Black was declared innocent of all charges except being an unregistered Animagi which he promptly paid the fine for despite being unable to access his vaults as his status of criminal denies him the right of doing. Now however as the Lord Black he surely has enough money to pay off whatever bribes he made beforehand._  
_The real questions that this reporter has is how has the ICW has become this corrupt that they would allow such an obvious criminal go free whilst not even allowing the Supreme Mugwump our own Albus Dumbledore to stand in on the trial. It has become quite clear to this reporter that the standard of the ICW are obviously falling whist those of Britain remain as stalwart as ever._  
_Our own Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge had this to say on the matter. "I do not for one second believe that Sirius Black got to that court as any law abiding citizen would be able to do. It is obvious that the man has bribed his way into that court and then bribed again to get himself free. Rest assured that he is still wanted here in Britain for the murder of thirteen muggles, Peter Pettigrew and for betraying the secret, and thereby leading to the death of James and Lily Potter at the hand of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named at the end of the Wizarding war. Whilst Security will be relaxed on all public places including Hogwarts we will be on the constant lookout of the fugitive and his status will remain as such until he is caught and given to the dementors of Azkaban."_

Thorne shook his head in disgust as he read the article for a second time. It only went to show just how incompetent the Ministry of Magic truly was, and how much needed to be changed. After putting down the paper and sharing a look with Nova, who too had read the paper and strongly disagreed with what had been written, Thorne noted that another owl had flown to him picking up the short note Thorne only noted that Dumbledore wanted to see him and Nova after breakfast before burning the note, and whilst noticing the fact that Dumbledore had obviously left the Hall from his lack of place at the Head Table Thorne and Nova rose to go and meet Dumbledore in his office. Both knowing what was inevitably going to be discussed and both knowing the plan to stick by.

)))))(((((

"AND WHY PRAY TELL ME WAS I NOT AWARE OF THIS COURT MEETING?" Dumbledore shouted as soon as Nova and Thorne walked through the door. "AND JUST WHO ARE YOU TO KNOW SUCH THINGS?"

"I'll answer your second question first" Thorne responded calmly, digging into a pocket of his cloak as he bought out a wallet, similar to the ones which held muggle police ID's, throwing it onto Dumbledore's desk he let the headmaster pick it up and open it. Albus merely stared at it for a few seconds before handing it back. "I was told there are only five Special Agents in the ICW, if you're one who are the other four?" he asked, trying to get as much information as possible.

"Oh you know we can't reveal that information" Nova replied, letting the extra piece of information slip on purpose as Dumbledore's expression switched from surprised to shocked.

"So I've been housing two of the top agents of the ICW in the castle since September?" he asked, quite unable to believe it.

"Something like that." Thorne responded grinning. "Now you're also probably wondering who the defence was for Sirius Black if the British representative was his prosecutor, and obviously if you can't work it out by now, well I don't think international politics is the place for you." Thorne knew that Dumbledore was aware, as Supreme Mugwump that only Special Agents, Supreme Mugwumps and representatives of nations could either prosecute or defend suspects in the ICW courts. "As to why you weren't aware of the meeting, I believe that the Supreme Mugwump is not needed at the meetings of the courts as it is outside of his normal jurisdictional boundaries. That is of course unless you've somehow changed the rules without anyone being aware of it."

"Very well." Dumbledore sighed in defeat, "but what of Pettigrew?"

"Well this is where your pet Werewolf screws things over." Nova replied grimly, pulling out the top half of the rat formerly known as Wormtail. "As you can see, I believe Moony is his name, took a chunk out of the poor fellow."

Dumbledore scowled, "I pray that you'll keep that piece of information quiet."

"Oh I hope that isn't a threat." Thorne replied almost too happily for the situation. "You fully well know the detail we have to go in for our reports, I mean we've stood in front of you and delivered them enough times." Thorne merely smiled as confusion passed through Dumbledore's face before the realization hit. "So you're the hooded figures that appear in front of the ICW every year." He exclaimed, happy that he was learning more about the twins than he had previously, although there was one more issue still in his mind.

"Yeah, that's us." Nova replied, "We're still wearing the same cloaks after all these years in the business, and we'd thought you'd recognize them sooner and with less prompts. Though to be fair you hardly get to look at them close up." Nova knew that taunting the Headmaster could get one of two reactions, and she hoped that he would back down, even though a full blown argument would be quite; no scratch that, very funny.  
"Indeed." Dumbledore said, seeing that a full blown argument wouldn't help this matter. "Still there is one matter that has me quite interested an yet hasn't been addressed yet. For last night the normal injuries would take days if not weeks or months to heal, if ever." With that he looked at Nova pointedly "Yet here you two stand without a scratch or anything to show for your wounds, just how are you able to manage it?"

Thorne sent Nova a mock guilty look before spinning the tale for Dumbledore. "As you know we were blessed with the gift of immortality to a limited extent by the Gods themselves, with that came the blessing that we could only be killed in battle and thereby we were impervious to all potions poisons and curses that took time to kill, it just so happens that this includes the curse of Lycanthropy, or the curse of the Werewolf. That is how Nova has shrugged it off, and indeed we have done a couple of times each doing our jobs. But anyway, soon after we were blessed by the god we realized that the blessing by itself would do no real good, and as such we underwent several rituals, all of them being labelled as 'Dark' nowadays that lent us several more god-like qualities, the advanced natural healing being just one of them alongside other things like natural dexterity, becoming ambidextrous, increases in speed and stamina, the list goes on for a few more that I cannot remember at the moment. But anyway, we'd started doing a few of these before we'd left on this journey anyway, and indeed it was because of that that we did start on the journey, we didn't want to perform the more dangerous ones near a school full of children you see." Thorne explained, "After we completed them we tested the rituals by helping out the Byzantine Empire as it was called, before returning to Hogwarts, taking over where our replacements left off."

Dumbledore had sat and nodded throughout all of it, before thinking for a few minutes and responding after Thorne finished his tale."A chequered history you have indeed." He started, "Whilst I cannot say I have experienced what you have I believe that you did what you felt what was right and for the greater good at the time." He paused for a minute before continuing. "Thank you for pleasing an old man's mind." It was with that that he left the office, obviously as a dismissal for the twins as well who took it as such. As soon as they were out of the office and indeed out of sight of the gargoyle Nova started laughing, "Well, another lie that our 'beloved' headmaster has fallen hook, line and sinker for. You'd of thought that the head of a school would be used to lie telling by now."

"That may be so." Thorne replied, "But he is able to read his students minds whilst our minds remain our own, he only has his belief that people will tell him the truth that allows him to drink in everything we tell him."

"And gods forbid that he ever finds out the truth." Nova said cheerily.

"God forbid indeed." Thorne replied with finality that lead the conversation back to everyday standards.

)))))(((((

After the first weekend in December things went back to what was considered normal for Hogwarts, or at least without danger. The presence of the Dementors was greatly diminished and on the final weekend before the Christmas Holidays began another celebration was found in the Guardian Common room as the Quidditch team proved aerial superiority against Hugglepuff, leading to a 400-120 win that left both sides tired after a well fought game, despite the obvious difference in quality of plays, Harry being able to act as a fourth chaser allowed the Guardians a distinct advantage especially as it allowed him to be much nearer the snitch when it finally appeared, tailing a bludger for a good ten minutes before bursting out into the open only to be caught.

The only other event of interest for many of the Guardians was on the last day of term as they gathered in the training room. Thorne stood in front of the weapons wall, congratulating them all on how well they'd done since the start of term, the training rarely being stopped outright, before turning back to the wall behind him. "Now" he started, projecting his voice outwards, "Those of you in third year and above seem to have mastered your weapons. First and Second years you haven't been trained as much as the others and as such won't begin this part of your training until the end of next term. However it is not always the case that as a Guardian you can get up close and personal with your enemy, and whilst you might think that you can use a wand to deal with ranged damage you must remember that besides a few special 'artillery' spells most only have a range of about 5 metres, whilst weapons like this." With that he bought out his pistol. "Have a much longer range." He proved it by shooting a target halfway down the training room. "This can hit a target 50 metres away, which is much further than its muggle equivalent. Now you can see why this is not the only weapons wall we have."

With a grand wave of his hands all the guardians watched as the wall turned on a central axis, showing that it had three sides, although known knew what was on the third side, especially as now most of them were staring at a wall filled with ranged weapons, the majority were some kind of bow or crossbow, although there were several gunpowder weapons up there. With a smile Thorne continued talking. "So you can see what you're going to be learning to use next term. We need you to be able to use short, medium and long range weaponry, if you plan to be a Guardian full time, this can extend way beyond school and as a career if you want it to. But be warned, if you do think of doing it the job can be a dangerous one. Anyway, that's enough of that for now. For those of you who are staying over Christmas, we have some training exercises we are going to try and run, for those who aren't have fun but remember to leave your weapons behind before you get on the train, I don't want to be in trouble with too many parents if possible." With that most of the students laughed as they broke off. Looking over to the door to his quarter Thorne noticed Nova looking into the training room where some of the Guardians had stayed. Walking over to her Thorne could only smile as he spoke. "The Holidays are here, let the games begin."

**A/N: Well, hope that the reviews come in, I really appreciate them (I've probably said that word for word before but its true), so keep them coming. If you want to question me on anything feel free to, and yes I am aware I've missed out several things from Canon (including Buckbeak). Hope you didn't mind the way Pettigrew met his end, he won't be missed by too many people. I also thought it was some sort of justice considering who killed him.  
Anyway, until next time**


	14. Chapter 13: A Trip to the Bank

**A/N: Phew, finally got this right, had to split the chapter into two, so expect the rest of it soon. Thank you to all the reviewers from last chapter, a quick answer to some of them.**

**Voldemort Is Dead - the bashing is coming soon, I'm giving it a base this chapter (which I am afraid is rather cliche and well used) but the Weasley's will start their fall soon, although you'll have to wait until fourth year for it to really start on Ron.**

**MartinDeShade - Yeah alright my first few chapters aren't that good, but I think you've got to be joking here. See the thing is, that living in England for all of your life kinda makes you a native speaker of English, which coincidentally is the language this is being written in. In fact outside of a few words of Welsh English is the only language I speak. (Rant now over) I will be re-doing the first few chapters of this story once I've completed it (before I work on the sequel)  
**

**Pixiegold - Thanks for the spelling correction, I have no idea why I made Hufflepuff into Hugglepuff but thanks for spotting it where I didn't.**

**Now all that's done remember I own nothing apart from the OC's and i stand to make a grand total of £0.00 out of this.**

**Chapter 13  
**_Tuesday 21__rd__ December 1993._

Harry looked out of the window as the last carriage exited Hogwarts before turning back to look at his room. The majority of the Guardians were staying in Hogwarts, either because it was easiest for them or because they were tempted by promises from Thorne and Nova. For him it was a mixture of the two. First of all it meant less time to stay at the Dursleys, which as ever was the best thing possible, whilst secondly several things had been mentioned by both Thorne and Nova that had Harry interested. The least of these was when Thorne mentioned that to be recognized as an heir to the founders he had to be recognized by the Goblins, who were meant to safeguard everything that belonged to the founders in the deepest vaults available to Gringotts. Looking back over the las term Harry couldn't help but think of the maelstrom it had been, with only a few weeks of peace between each major event. But what a term it had truly been, he now had a Godfather truly free, even if the ministry couldn't accept it, and he had been given more information about his history than ever before, even if he hadn't been told about his parents, he now knew of his distant ancestors and their families.

Letting out a sigh Harry looked over his room, the few posters he had were scattered over the walls, whilst his Nimbus was resting in one corner. His bed with its heraldry colours of silver and brown as per the Guardians badge sat in the adjacent corner, a simple dresser being the only thing in between the two. Next to where he stood now was the desk, with a single chair and a bookshelf above that, whilst the door stood beyond that. Exiting out of his thoughts Harry moved out of his room, headed back downstairs for his weekly floo call to Guardian Manor, to speak with his Godfather, and then after that he'd try and pull Hermione out of her studying to spend time together, possibly even bringing a few other friends along at the same time.

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_Thursday 23__rd__ December 1993_

Thorne was the first one through the floo as the group left Hogwarts for what he had said to Dumbledore was some 'Last minute Christmas shopping'. Of course that was a lie, it was only a formality to let the Headmaster know where they would be roughly for the majority of that day. It hadn't even been that hard to get him to agree. What had been surprisingly harder was to get the three students to come alone, and only the three students that Thorne wanted. Hermione seemed to have stuck closer to Harry than glue would really allow and as such had to be prized most carefully away from him to let the boy go anywhere on his own, otherwise Hermione would come streaming behind, often complaining. It was at times such as those that Thorne wished he hadn't been so lax with the Guardians when they arrived; although he knew that by doing so he'd gained more favours. Even so it was only the threat of stopping her from going into the Library for the rest of the year that let Thorne remove Hermione from Harry, although he approved of the pairing it still seemed to be a bit too close, as if someone had mixed up the love potions. After that Thorne was glad that Nova was trying to get the other two girls to come alone, unaware of the problems that she'd have.

Although the two were nowhere near as close and clingy as Hermione and Harry Nova certainly had a hard time removing Hannah Abbott from Susan. For some reason Hannah seemed particularly attached to Susan that bought Nova to question just which gender Hannah actually liked, silently of course. Still removing them had eventually happened. Su however was the easiest job as the Asian girl seemed to have no clingy friends, which worked well for Nova, not that she'd of ever uttered it out loud though. Besides to Thorne, but then again as twins there was hardly anything that the two didn't share.

Dusting themselves off after the Floo travel into the Leaky Cauldron Thorne and Nova led the other three toward the bank of Gringotts first, for there they had other business than just collecting gold. The real reason for their visit was slightly edgier as it delved deep into the twins past into some things that they may not have necessarily liked to share yet, however they still knew it was necessary.

Stalking down Diagon Alley the group attracted a whole array of stares from the shoppers who were rushing in and out of the various stores. In return the five showed no recognition of even receiving these stares, the three students keeping their heads down as told by Thorne to do, whilst he and Nova maintained an air of indifference around them, like a sheet of ice protected them from the outside world. Arriving outside Gringotts Thorne stopped and turned around, checking out each and every shopper before continuing up the flight of stairs into the bank, making sure that the other four were still with him. Inside the five continued to receive stares, both from Wizard and Goblin kind, however they were able to keep up the act of indifference although Thorne and Nova almost turned it up to a snobbish 'I'm better than you' act, almost as if they were trying to belittle everyone else in the lobby. It wasn't just the cloaks and inability for their faces to be seen that caused the stares however, for the impressive range of visible weaponry that was present was enough to worry several wizards. It looked like enough to start a fight, and more than enough to win it as well. The stares of the goblins however were quite difference, instead of the fear and shock that was displayed openly on the faces of their human counterparts the Goblins had stares of anticipation as if they were waiting for a show that was about to happen.

At the end of the main hall where the tellers worked there was a large set of golden doors, reaching up to almost half the height of the room. At the doors stood a guard of nine goblins, one standing exactly In the middle of the two doors with four on either side of him, each wielded a Halberd and was dressed in chain mail from head to foot. Walking up to the central Goblin Thorne spoke for the first time since entering. "Open the doors, tell the Lord Director that the Guardians have returned, and with us are the heirs."

The Goblins remained, unmoving from their posts as the central Goblin replied "And just how do we know that one?" Thorne smiled as he heard the Goblins reply before bending down to be level with the Goblins ear, whispering to him. "You ever heard of the Pental Alliance?" at the Goblins gulp and nod Thorne continued, "Then you'll know who we are." Another gulp and nod from the guard was made before he signaled to the eight guards behind him and spoke. "Open the doors, we have important visitors for the Lord Director." With the swift and fluid motion that showed the Goblins art of war the guards closest to the doors moved their halberds so that they hit the doors twice before returning them to their original positions by their sides. As if by magic the sound of footsteps marching to a beat were heard through the hall as the doors opened to reveal a force of nine more Goblins, dressed from head to toe in plate mail armour, each carrying a halberd with a sword, dagger or axe attached to the belt. Lining up either side of the five Guardians the procession then marched deeper into the bank, the doors swing shut with a loud noise as soon as the last Goblin in the procession had passed back through them.

Whilst Thorne and Nova marched ahead the other three Guardians, Su Li, Susan Bones and Harry Potter could not help but look around the corridor they were being lead down, the architecture was exquisite with paintings and murals spanning metre upon metre depicting battle after battle and wealth beyond measure in the forms of coins, gems and precious metals. Even the ceiling and floor were covered, the ceiling had one huge battle scene depicted, showing a battle line, not just made of Goblin warriors, but other warriors as well, Vampires depicted in black with swords of black and red fought next to Centaurs wielding massive battle-axes and warhammers, further along winged demons fought side by side with Elves, real Elves and not the House Elves that the Wizarding culture were so used to. But what shocked the other three Guardians were the forces that this mixture of races fought against, instead of the expected humans they fought against forces of the night, some more tame creatures like Werewolves and Acromantula's as well as Minotaurs and Manticores stood out. "Aah you noticed the Battle of the Night" Thorne's voice broke the three out of their stupor. "It is said in the ancient texts that this battle took place when man was learning how to use fire and the ancient races were spread throughout the land, the five sentient races, Elf, Goblin, Centaur, Vampire and Succubi stood against the worst Dark Lord in history a Werewolf known only as the Night God who had gathered all the dark forces in the world under his rule and they fought for control of the earth. It is a shame that both sides of the glorious battle are now classified under the same system by Wizards. Of course none are sure where this battle actually took place, although it is known that the Sentient Races won out after the Elven, Goblin and Vampire Kings joined together and killed the Night God, although each apparently suffered mortal wounds and died even as their forces chased down the retreating army of the night."

The three appreciated Thorne's knowledge on the subject, although none questioned him about it. However it did perk Su's thrist for knowledge "So Elves actually existed, do they still exist outside of the House Elves of course."

Thorne laughed before answering as they continued down the long hall. "Oh they most definitely existed, although very few still exist now if any, most if they do exist have so much human blood mixed in there they probably wouldn't even come up as an Elf." The answer seemed to satisfy Su, or at least for the moment as they were now approaching another set of doors, although these were much larger than the previous set. There were other differences as well, one of the more noticeable being that they were made out of solid gold, and that even from the carvings on the door all five Guardians could imagine the grandeur of the Hall that existed behind them.

As the procession approached the doors swung open to reveal a throne room, there at the far end upon a single throne of gold sat the Lord Director, Ragnok. The nine Goblin escort moved so that they now lined the wall that the doors were set into. Thorne moved forwards at the same pace as the Goblin left the throne, meaning that the two met in the middle of the Throne room. "Ragnok, Lord Director, it is an honour to be here." Thorne spoke first, bowing properly as he awaited Ragnok's reply. "It is an honour for me too Thorne." Nodding once Thorne spoke, "Harry, Susan and Su, come forward to meet the Director. Ragnok, I'm sure you recognize the other member of our party."

Ragnok nodded before looking at Nova, looking her up and down for a second before replying. "Aaah the beauty that is Nova, it is a glory to see you again. Now I doubt you came here for some chit-chat else you wouldn't of used the wording you used to see me, so what shall I call you?"

"Thorne and Nova will do for now, that is the second matter for this meeting, the first is possibly more important." Thorne replied before calling Harry and Susan forward. "Here stand the two heirs of the Founders, Harry James Potter, Lord Gryffindor and Lord Ravenclaw by birth, Lord Slytherin through conquest of the line of Gaunt. He carries the Sword of Gryffindor as recognition of his feats as a Monster Slayer. Beside him stands Susan Amelia Bones Lady Hufflepuff by birth, here to claim Hufflepuff's mace as per record. Next to them stands Su Li, ancestor of the General and the Battlemaster of the Guardians."

"I shall start by saying that I am honoured to meet you Su Li, your ancestors name is known to the Goblins, for he treated us with as much respect as any would give to members of their fellow race. Now then, these other two are the heirs of the founders? Then let the ceremony begin I say." Ragnok cleared his throat before continuing in a much more formal tone of voice than any would expect a Goblin to be able to use. "I Lord Director Ragnok do see these two, and if they let me be I will test them to confirm identities." Ragnok replied formally before turning his attentions to the Goblins in the room "Now bring forth the Inheritance testers."

'Whatever the Inheritance testers were they seemed to be on standby' Su noted, having taken a step back from the main group, seeing as she could see that she was not needed for this part of the meeting. Su saw what the testers were only a couple of minutes later as a Goblin hurried up with a pair of bowls and knives, the hilt made of the knife made out of a stone similar in look to Pumice, whilst the blade seemed to have been made of Flint. The bowls too were made of the Pumice, although instead of the rough and holey surface Pumice normally had the bowls were made of a smooth variation of the stone.

Turning to Susan and Harry Ragnok explained to them what had to happen. "Cut the palm of your right hand with the knife and let the blood drip into the bowl, the wound will heal when enough blood has been collected. Both did as asked and upon the completion of task both were shocked as the bowls turned blood red before the crests of their families appeared around the edge of each bowl. For Harry the Crests were Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin and Potter, whilst for Susan they were Hufflepuff and Bones.

After confirming the crests Ragnok spoke again. "Everything is in order; you are the heirs to all those houses at the moment though more may be added over time, either through inheritance or conquest. I will now retrieve the Mace of Hufflepuff, for each founder had a weapon and whilst they were entrusted to the Goblins who put them into their own Vault it would appear that the sword of Gryffindor appeared to its heir in a time of great need. As you have bonded with it you cannot claim either of the other founders weapons, the Axe of Slytherin or the Spear of Ravenclaw. Now if you wait just a moment I'll get my son Bloodjack to show you to the Hogwarts Vault." With that Ragnok signalled once with his right hand, and from the sides of the throne room a younger looking Goblin emerged. "Bloodjack my son, as I'm sure you heard I'd like you to take the Hogwarts Heirs down to their vault please."

Bowing once Bloodjack ushered Harry and Susan to follow him out of the throne room and back into the long hall they had just exited. "Now, my Lord and Lady" he said as soon as the doors to the throne room were closed, "We'll be using a special mine cart to get down to the Hogwarts Vault as it lies at the deepest part of our underground system and as such cannot be accessed by the normal tracks." With that Bloodjack opened a golden door in the right hand wall of the hall, Harry noting that it had a silver design of a mine cart upon it. Inside the room itself was an eight foot square with a mine cart as the only object in the room. As Harry and Susan got into it Bloodjack flicked a lever that had appeared out of the floor before leaping into the mine cart. Like something out of Thunderbirds the piece of floor with the mine cart on started tipping until it was at a sixty degree angle, before the rest of the floor in front of it then starter to disappear, revealing a lone track that the cart quickly started to move along.

About ten stomach turning minute later the trio inside the mine cart stopped at an ominous looking vault, the door made of coloured marble, one quarter red, one green, one blue and the final one yellow. It only took Harry and Susan stepping out of the cart for the door to open, and when they looked at Bloodjack he quickly explained. "The vault only opens for the true heirs, it is as alive as Hogwarts itself is, imbued with ancient magics that not only a couple of people still on this earth understand. It recognizes who stands before it, and if the ones who stand before it aren't Heirs of the founders or one of the sentient races then they meet a rather gruesome death." Bloodjack grinned at the thought of the last part. "Now, I believe you'll want to be back up in the main room soon, so I'll show you where the Mace of Hufflepuff is, and then if there's anything else you need you can always come back for it at another time." The two nodded and entered the vault.

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"Now then" Ragnok turned once again to Thorne and Nova after Bloodjack had left the room. "I believe that you said that Su Li here was your Battlemaster correct?"  
"Aye." Thorne replied, " She has already proven herself with the capture of Sirius Black." Thorne looked behind him to where Su currently stood. "Su come join us, I promise Ragnok won't bite. Well, he won't bite you anyway." With that Su nodded as she drew back her hood and came to stand with the twins in front of Ragnok. As she approached Ragnok looked her up and down once. "A fine warrior you have chosen this time, I believe you when you say she fights well. Tell me does she have the blood in her?"

"Yes Lord Director, although it is so diluted it hardly counts for anything."

"I would disagree. She appears to have an unnatural agility that only those of the blood could hold."  
As Ragnok and Thorne argued points back and forth Su looked around, confused about just what they were talking about, although certain that everything she had seen and heard was related, she remained silent as she tried to work it out, looking around her for more clues. Seeing none she looked at Nova, who was also standing still throughout the conversation. Sending Nova a questioning lance Nova looked at her for a second before mouthing at her "You'll find out later." Although when Su tried to find out more Nova wouldn't say anything else.  
"So now we have discussed that, I believe we go back to the original question." Ragnok stated, making it obvious to Su that the he and Thorne had finished discussing her.

"Indeed." Thorne replied, "The full effects are in order though, as we now have returned to reclaim everything."

It was to this that the whole hall seemed to fall into silence, as Ragnok started to speak the doors to the hall creaked open as Bloodjack walked in. Realizing what he had disturbed the goblin quickly ushered Harry and Susan towards where the rest of the Guardians stood before walking back to where he had been before he had originally been summoned.

Su looked at Harry and Susan, they both had slightly shocked looks on their faces as well as a slight queasy look as well. As if they'd been on a rather bad rollercoaster, which Su supposed, 'with the carts in this place they had been' But the shock that registered in their eyes seemed to be all the more puzzling to Su, the best she could work out was that as the Heirs to the founders they were rather rich, or rather certainly owned a lot more than a trust vault could ever hold. The only other difference was with Susan's weapons. Whereas before Susan had just used a single mace with her right hand, she now had a belt which held two maces, one to be used with each hand, although the one for her right hand seemed to shine with an unnatural light. 'The Mace of Hufflepuff' Su thought.

Once everyone was in place and silent Ragnok simply nodded to himself before speaking to all in the throne room before him "Goblins, in this place stand our noble allies, and behind them stand the lost race, for they have returned from their cruel exile and they have fought for the betterment of our kind against the creatures of the night throughout it. So as Lord Director of the Goblins, leader of Goblin Europe I proclaim to you today that here in this hall stand High Lord Thorne Gawainson and High Lady Nova Tristan, for here they stand as Heads of Houses, Guardians of Hogwarts, Friends and Allies to the Sentient races, Rulers of the Forest Realms, and their rightful place as the Stewards of the Elves."

With that every Goblin in the throne room went down on one knee as silence reigned. It was Thorne who ended it as he spoke loudly and clearly catching the attention of every being in the room. "Goblins, you have no reason to bow for here we stand as equals. Come, let us continue our business as we wish to waste not your time, just as we have other things to do."

As if the words themselves were magic the Goblins busied themselves with their normal duties as Ragnok spoke once again to the group. "Is that all, or will you do as most wizards do when they enter here?"

"What? Insult ancient customs. I'd rather leave with my head firmly attached to the rest of my body thanks." Thorne replied, carrying on before Ragnok had a chance to respond to it. "Yes I believe we will visit our vaults, the whole reason we got away was because of 'late minute Christmas shopping' so coming back without gifts would be suspicious, and of course…"

"Gifts mean money." Ragnok finished.

"Indeed." Thorne agreed before looking to the three students in the group. "Well I think we broke them with the whole formality act, what do you think Lord Director?"

"I'd agree with you there Steward" Ragnok replied, taking on a more haughty tone of voice. "Of course if they don't respond soon we could always feed them to the dragons."

It was that that got a response out of the three as three quite audible gulps sounded out almost simultaneously, as the three students entered back into reality they all had a question on their lips, although Su was able to get it out first. "So you're an Elf?"

"Half-Elf actually." Nova replied. "That's how we've lived for almost a millennia and have the extra healing powers, all the stuff we told Dumbledore, which then ran through the school is the general lie we use."

Thorne continued on before any of them had the chance to ask the obvious question. "the great bit about us being Half-Elves is that we have the physical appearance of a human, yet inside we're an elf, hence no pointy ears or anything like that. It also explains how we're able to react so quickly nd stuff."

"So what about all the history stuff you've taught us thought?" Harry asked, "Did that actually happen?"

"Yeah, the majority of it anyway." Nova took up the talk, "We've removed most of the bits that talk about Elves from the pensive memories, but yeah our mother was the Elf, we just didn't know until we met her."  
Ragnok interrupted the group before they could talk any further. "Now I hate to disrupt this history lesson, but I believe we have business here to do."

**A/N: well there you go. Please Review it helps me out, expect to see the next chapter soon.**


	15. Chapter 14: Bank Vaults and Christmas

**A/N: hey guys, sorry this is a bit late but I've been ill since Friday and I've realized just how much work I've got to do by Easter as well. Not 100% happy with Christmas Day but it's as good as I'm going to get it (unless I get a beta. hmmm.) Time to answer some reviewers**

**Happylady - I'm sorry for making Hermione dislike-able, hoping to answer this some more in this chapter and the next few once we get back to term-time. As to the killing her off probably not.  
**

**Jen - thankyou for that spelling mistake I will go back and fix it at some point.**

**ChordOverstreetFan -As much as I get why you want Pettigrew to live I feel that doing so would go down the same path as quite a few other Independent Harry stories that I've read and I want to do something different, especially as most things surrounding Voldemort are going to be different. Besides I need the Ministry/Fudge to come across as incompetent as possible and having Sirius being a sticking point between the Ministry and the ICW helps make that so.**

**Anyway after a quick Disclaimer: I don't own anything apart from the plot and the OC's, it's on with the chapter.**

**Chapter 14**

_Thursday 23__rd__ December 1993_

Last Time…

_Ragnok interrupted the group before they could talk any further. "Now I hate to disrupt this history lesson, but I believe we have business here to do."_

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"Indeed." Thorne said, "You know our vault numbers, 13 and 18 as usual." Thorne then looked at the other three in the group, "If you know your vault numbers tell Ragnok and he'll make sure we get there, otherwise you can borrow some off me. Also helps if you know the name of the vault, if it's got a name that is."

"Number 942, Susan Bones trust vault." Susan said immediately

"Number 639, Su Li trust vault." Su replied after a moment.

"Number 687, Potter vault." Harry was the last of the three to reply, making it obvious to the twins he hadn't been to his vault in a while.

"I think you mean Harry Potter trust vault Harry." Thorne said.

"Oh, Hagrid said it was my normal vault when I came here first year." Harry replied, "but maybe he got it wrong, I haven't been here since."

"Then how did you get your money out?" Ragnok asked curiously, a single eyebrow raised.

"Mrs Weasley got it out for me." Harry replied, thinking it was entirely normal.

"So she had your written permission?" Ragnok continued to question Harry, knowing that what the kid was saying was highly irregular and didn't quite match up.

"No, she didn't." Harry replied, looking a bit put down.

Thorne and Ragnok's eyes met once, the two nodded before Thorne spoke. "I hat ot disappoint you Harry, but what Mrs Weasley was doing is highly illegal, I take it she has your key?" At Harry's nod he continued. "The Goblins will try and get it back, but I strongly believe that you'll find she took more money out than you think."

Nova looked like she was thinking things through before she spoke. "Harry, it's not your fault, you didn't know. Although I'm glad we found out about it now instead of when you came of age."

As Nova spoke Ragnok looked at Harry again. "Mr. Potter, you're the last of your magical family correct?"

"Unless there's somebody I don't know about yeah" Harry replied.

"Then you should have been told about your family vault by your magical guardian."

"What's a Magical Guardian?" Harry asked.

As one Thorne, Nova and Ragnok looked at each other, each having had an light bulb moment before speaking in unison. "Albus Dumbledore."

"Well that's who and why." Ragnok said before turning back to Harry "A Magical Guardian is someone who looks after a magical child until they are of age. They can also be the legal Guardian but they don't have to be, as Legal Guardians can be mundane instead of magical."

Harry nodded in understanding. "So why is having Dumbledore as my Magical Guardian a bad thing?" he asked.

"Basically he's broken about three Goblin laws and one Ministry Law already and we haven't even found out the damage he's done to your vault yet." Thorne replied. "He's probably used some Potter money to fund his own projects, I mean he didn't even tell you that you have more than one vault, which by law he's meant to. Added on to that he shouldn't even be your Magical Guardian in the first place, however your will was sealed and you can only unseal it after you become emancipated, which normally happens when you come of age at 17, however as you're the last of the Potter line law allows you to become emancipated, and thus of age at 15." Thorne let out a sigh of breath, "At least I think that's correct."

"It is indeed." Ragnok said, nodding his head. "Now Mr. Potter, you can choose to change your Magical Guardian and that will take place almost immediately, from there we can do a full audit of your vaults, however because of the size of your vaults and everything the full audit would take about eight months."

"Eight months. Why?" Harry exclaimed.

"Well, even with magic not everything is instantaneous." Ragnok explained. "We'd need to freeze all three of your vaults, stopping every transfer even if it's set to be automated. Unfortunately this does include your Hogwarts tuition fee. Then we'd have to check each vault for every transfer in and out of it from the point of time we froze it, all the way back to when your parents died. We'd have to do that for all three vaults before then finding out which transfers were unauthorised, that being any transfer without yours or Hogwarts name directly involved in it, we will then need to collect that money in, if indeed the vault still has it, and if not then we have various ways to make sure you get your money back. The other reason the full audit will take so long is that we will have to look into the archives to see if there are any debts filed away but yet to be paid, if there are we then take those into account as well when taking the money back."

"Oh OK." Harry responded meekly as he realized just how much work was going to go on.

"Now I think we've wasted FAR too much time here." Thorne said, so let's get going on the normal shopping trip. That is unless Harry wants to change Magical Guardian?"

"Who would it be too if I did want to?" Harry asked, unsure if he'd prefer the alternatives.

"Normally it'd be to any free adult you wanted. However due to the whole Heirs and Guardians of Hogwarts thing, and an oath I am still bound to, I must be your Magical Guardian." Thorne replied. Upon seeing Harry's inquisitive look he added on "I'll tell you about it later. Alone."

Nodding his head in understanding Harry thought for a few minutes before responding. "OK, so what do we have to do?"

"This is the fun part." Thorne replied smiling. "Normally you have to fill out loads of paperwork and stuff, however with the oath working the way it does its slightly different." Thorne said, before kneeling on one knee in front of Harry, head bowed. "Now, you know how a monarch knights someone?" Harry voiced his affirmations realizing that Harry couldn't see if he just nodded. "Right do that, but you also have to say '_I Harry James Potter, Heir of Gryffindor do recognize Thorne Marius Gawainson as my Life Guard and my protector.'_ OK?"

Harry nodded before drawing his sword, as he did the actions he said the words, and after the last syllable was spoke a golden light appeared around him, before it quickly moved over to Thorne, wrapping around the Half Elf before sinking into his skin. "There you go Harry, it's done." Thorne said, "Now, we'll go to our vaults, collect some money and then be on our way. Ragnok could you start the audit as soon as we've left Harry's vault, which we'll go to first if that's OK?"

"Indeed" Ragnok replied. "I will see you to the main room, and from there get a Goblin to show you to your vaults."

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The rest of the day out in Diagon Alley was as normal as one could expect it to be, or so Harry thought as they ate a late lunch in the Leaky Cauldron, after getting some money out they'd toured the shops, each buying a few presents for others, whilst also stocking up on supplies, both for themselves and their owls. As the five flooed back to Hogwarts Harry couldn't help but think of what had happened that day. The fact that Thorne and Nova weren't fully human made a few things click into place in Harry's mind, the agility and grace that the two showed had always seemed inhuman and they had revealed in fact it was. Although the origin of Thorne and Nova wasn't the only thing on his mind, the words he had spoken to Thorne when he swapped Magical Guardians kept bugging him, or more specifically the two words 'Life Guard' Harry was sure it didn't mean someone who looked out for you in the swimming pool, and that there was something a lot more serious to it than that, he wanted to talk to Thorne about that when they got back, just to help soothe his queries.

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In the end it was Thorne who cornered Harry, although a quick message of "Training Room Seven O'clock tonight" didn't exactly leave Harry with all the answers he wanted, it was obvious that Thorne didn't want to reveal any of it to anyone else who could have been listening in.

As Seven O'clock approached Harry found himself waiting in the training room, taking the time to go through some moves with the sword of Gryffindor, nothing serious, just enough to pass the time. Getting distracted by the moves he was practising Harry didn't hear his opponent enter the training room, nor did he realize he had an opponent until he felt the coolness of a blade against his stomach as his sword clashed with another at about head level. "And you'd be dead." Was the only thing Thorne said as Harry took stock of his surroundings once again. Thorne had obviously come in from his own quarter as the door between there and the training room was left open, whilst the other door into the main common room was still shut.

"Come on Harry, let's go into my quarters, I'll explain everything in detail there." Thorne suggested, sheathing his blades as Harry did the same, before the two walked into the main living space of Thorne and Nova's quarters. Telling Harry to sit down Thorne walked off, entering another area, that through the small space left by the door opening Harry saw what looked like a kitchen.

About a minute later Thorne walked back into the main area, two butterbeers in hand. Throwing one to Harry, who reacted and caught it, Thorne opened the other for himself. Taking a large gulp Thorne sat opposite Harry before starting to talk.

"As you well know, I lived in the same castle as Godric Gryffindor did, and in fact I served some of my time as a squire under him, learning the ways of fighting and stuff, things that a dad didn't want to teach his son. So as it was the two of us were close, closer than normal anyway, and that was added onto the fact that my dad was a bodyguard for the king himself. You see my family had long-served the Gryffindors, way back into the misty past of around Arthur's time, where legend has it that the first Gryffindor just so happened to have a first name of Bedwyr, or in English tongue, for we spoke Welsh at that point, Bedivere. Whether that's the truth or not I don't know."

"Wasn't Bedivere one of the Knights of the Round Table?" Harry asked.

"Yeah he was, however you can't claim him as your ancestor due to a couple of bastard children and elder lines that haven't truly died out yet."

"So his ancestors still live?" Harry asked slightly confused.

"Yeah, I believe their direct line is in America somewhere, if you study the magical family trees hard enough you'll find the heirs of each of the Knights of the Round Table spread somewhere across the globe, as they were all wizards of some pedigree, but of course Merlin was the greatest of them all, imagine if you will that Dumbledore was Merlin then the Knights would be at about the same power as a seventh year Graduate of Hogwarts, whilst Arthur would be a top level Auror."

"Wow" was all Harry could say.

"Yes, anyway we're going off topic here." Thorne said, taking another long drink of his butterbeer. "My family has fought beside the Gryffindors for ages, whilst my father was the bodyguard for the King, my older nephew was bodyguard for the crown prince, and I as the next oldest of my family was the bodyguard for Gryffindor. Now these bodyguards or Life Guards literally swore that if the Gryffindors willed it they would protect the Gryffindors with their life and if they failed do whatever was necessary to avenge them."

"But surely your oath you swore ended when Gryffindor died didn't it?" Harry interrupted.

"Ah now here's the tricky part." Thorne responded, glad Harry had bought it up. "Due to the exact wording of the oath or rather part of it "_Until my next in line and of age swears also" _I am sworn to protect **every** heir of Gryffindor from now until my own son swears in the oath, it was basically added in in case any of the sons were feeling rebellious or something like that, as it would essentially be condemning their fathers or brothers to a life of servitude. However the reason why I wasn't able to do this for your any of your ancestors is because of another part of the oath "_Whilst I remain in the same borders as my ward" _so I was not bound by the oath whilst I was in exile."

"So what does it actually mean" Harry asked as what Thorne was saying swam around his head.

"Basically until you are of age, once you have accepted the oath like you did this morning, I become your absolute guardian in all things, I can decide where you live, everything. Once you are of age however then I am sworn to protect your life with my own, if I fail then my life is forfeit until you are avenged by my killing of the force which killed you."

Two questions were immediately at the front of Harry's mind. "So you can get me away from the Dursleys" was the first that came out of his mouth.

"Indeed, if that is what you wish." Thorne replied before mentally cursing himself for sounding like a genie.

"But where would I live?" Harry asked, suddenly realizing that without the Durselys he wouldn't actually have a home.

"Well, as per the oath I offer you my house of Guardian Manor to stay in, it's situated on an island in the Indian Ocean, I'm afraid the wards won't let me tell you an more than that, but I will say that that's were Sirius is at the moment as well."

"Thanks" harry said bouncing up and down in his seat. "Do you really have to kill a force by yourself if I die though?"

"Yep" Thorne nodded "It's not a nice thought to have mind you, for example if an Auror killed you I'd have to take out the entire Auror force if not the Ministry of Magic, so only get killed by a small force please." Thorne joked at the end.

Harry could understand how Thorne could joke about such a thing but didn't vocalize it, knowing that Thorne and Nova were different from everybody else alive now. "Ok, thank you though."

"Hey it's fine" Thorne replied, "Come on, you probably want to finish that butterbeer before going back to the common room, I don't want to be surrounded by people asking for drinks."

The two sat in near silence as they finished off their drinks. Once Harry had finished Thorne spoke again, "Go on, go back to your friends, they're probably more interesting than an old codger like me. Trust me you'll find out some interesting things soon enough." Taking that as the dismissal it was Harry nodded before getting up and leaving Thorne's quarter, his mind still trying to process what Thorne had explained to him.

)))))(((((

_Saturday 25__th__ December 1993._

The last two days before Christmas were very busy as always. Presents were wrapped and placed in special areas for the House Elves to deliver come Christmas Day, the halls and corridors of Hogwarts itself became increasingly festive and the odd flurry of snow quickly became a constant that allowed snowball fights to be had by all. But the joy of Christmas was still the best event of the holidays 'So far' Thorne thought, looking forward to the Wizengamot meeting the next day before quickly looking around the common room again. Each of the Guardians had somehow been coerced by friends and by Thorne and Nova themselves to open their presents together in the common room of the Guardians wing.

Leaning against the door to the training room Thorne and Nova watched as the wrapping paper flew through the air, at times aided by bursts of _Wingardium Leviosa _landing literally anywhere, around the common room hugs and high fives were exchanged just as much as the presents were with each person excited about what they'd gained that year.

As the last present was set down Thorne spoke up, "Now there's one more present for each of you here, and if we've got the spell right it should appear at all of the Guardians homes if they're there instead of here." With a noticeable flick of his wand a cloak appeared in front of all of them.

"This is your identity badge if you will." Nova spoke up, "Wearing this proves to everyone that you are part of the Guardians, you've each got what is officially called a Mark 2 Cloak, it's two layers of cotton with a thin layer of Welsh Green Dragonhide sandwiched in between, it should stop most spells that come at you, of course it won't stop the unforgivable or some of the more darker curses you can come across, it also isn't too good in a physical fight but it can offer you enough protection. Now the other feature of the cloak is the hood, when put up it still allows for your faces to be seen, however it changes your voice to be either a generic English male or female voice dependent on gender. It also has built in charms that help resist the Confundus and Imperio spells."

Looking around Thorne saw the looks of awe that were painted onto most of the faces, he smiled to himself as almost as one each Guardian snapped out of their shock and sent a chorus of Thank you to him and Nova. What shocked him even more was the question Claire Whitewolf, the second year Goalkeeper on the Quidditch team, asked him. "Did you enjoy your presents?"

Blinking a few times Thorne then replied "Honestly, I had none, which overall is an improvement on other years."

"Oh why?" Claire asked curiously.

"Tell you what, how would you like to go and hunt a rogue werewolf pack in Australia for Christmas?" Nova asked.

"Oh" Claire replied "I think I see why then."

"Yeah." Was all Nova said in response, "It's just a normal day like every other for us. I mean if we were resting who'd guard the Guardians?"

"That and the fact we never really converted to Christianity so Christmas isn't that much of a big deal for us." Thorne explained, "Minding you we've never been THAT big on religion anyway, I think the Greek Pantheon is probably the closest religion we've ever belonged to and that's only because of our experiences with them." Thorne then winked at the corner where the third years sat, knowing that Harry, Susan and Su would know what he meant.

" Anyway" Thorne said, quickly deciding to change topics. "Let's not dwell on our daily routines and religious preferences, I hear there's snow outside and I know what you kids can be like, so go on get out there."

With that friendly dismissal Thorne could only smile as the first and second years rushed out of the common room, the third and fourth years not too far behind them. Making sure they were all gone Thorne called out "Fronce" only waiting a couple of second before his House Elf appeared in the room.

"Yes Thorne" Fronce asked, knowing that his master hated to be called anything else.

"Any post for us today, or has the news gotten around quick enough?" Thorne asked hoping that they weren't going to get pulled out today to do a mission.

"No Thorne, all the ministries are dealing with it themselves today, although I think Mr Black is getting closer to the truth sir."

"No worries there Fronce, we're inducting him into the Guardians this summer so he'll know what's what then anyway." Thorne responded.

"Yes Sir." Fronce said "Then I will go and may I wish you a Merry Christmas." The House Elf didn't wait for a reply before vanishing again.

As soon as Fronce disappeared Thorne visibly sank in relief, looking at Nova he saw that she had pretty much copied his motion as well. The two had been so used to working every day of the year on missions that having one day rest was a rare opportunity, a few years rest like Hogwarts was providing them with was beyond belief, of course they both didn't believe that Hogwarts had called to them just because the ghost of a History of Magic Professor was boring others to death but they could certainly hope.

)))))(((((

After the Christmas Dinner where Thorne and Nova were able to sit with the Guaridans rather than at the Head Table like normal the whole group headed back up to the Guardian Wing. Most of the younger students were exhausted after playing with and in the snow all morning whilst the twins were able to take advantage of no-one being in the training room to set it up for something quite different from what it usually contained. Instead of a running track and exercise areas the whole room was dotted with tables, each allowing four or five people to sit at each, with a wide variety of games for everyone to play put on each table, from normal cards to exploding snap there was plenty for people to choose from. Along the wall at the far end was a whole host of different food, common at both Magical and Muggle parties along with various drinks from both the worlds as well.

"Well" Thorne said as he looked at all the Guardians in the room, "We thought we'd throw something of our own party for you guys, mainly to say thanks for putting up with us for a term as both Heads of house and your Professors as well. Thank our house elves Fronce and Huxan for the Magical refreshments and for the Mundane ones thank that shop called ASDA's." Thorne laughed as the pure-bloods and some of the half-bloods looked confused at what exactly ASDA's was, before it was quickly explained to them by the rest. Continuing on Thorne said "Well, don't expect some grand speech like Dumbledore gives you, tuck in and don't forget to have fun."

Harry quickly joined his new group of friends who had spread out across a couple of tables. As always Hermione was by his side, the two had become quite close through the first term and whilst they'd been able to gain more friends as a pair than just Ron they didn't really have any separate friend groups. Looking around Harry thought about the rest of his friends in the group, his closest friends as it were. To his right sat Su Li, the two were becoming good friends both because of their importance to the Guardians, the two of them along with Susan were often training together and so it was impossible for them to not be friends. Hannah Abbott sat next to Su, Hannah had joined the group with Susan, although at first she'd hang around on the edges whenever Susan had to be with the rest of Hufflepuff like today. Still after a time she'd been integrated into the group even without her best friends there. Next along were Justin Flinch-Fletchly and Lisa Turpin, besides the latter being good friends with Su, the two of them had known Hermione after a study group they'd set up in the Library in their first year. There were others who joined the group from time to time from all four years but they were the main group of friends.

Harry was bought back by Hermione nudging him saying "… wouldn't you Harry?"

Using a more intelligent reply Harry answered "Huh, sorry I was thinking about things."

"So much for being her knight in shining armour." Justin laughed

"Unless that's what he was thinking about." Lisa said chuckling, "You know how the pair of them are."

"LISA" Hermione called out interrupting Lisa's trail of speech. "We're just good friends."

"Sure, that's what they all say." Lisa joked in reply.

Hermione humphed in reply as Harry patted her shoulder saying "Come on Hermione, we're teenagers, it's practically our job to mess around like this."

"And since when did you take their side Harry James Potter?" Hermione launched a full glare at Harry who gulped under its intensity before cheekily answering. "Well someone needs to balance you out and I'm probably the only person who can do that job." With that the rest of the table dissolved into fits of laughter as Hermione sent another glare at Harry, although this one wasn't half as serious as the last.

The rest of the day was spent amongst friends in the Guardian Wing, the party food laid out for the house lasted them through dinner and into the early realms of the night, where eventually they were ushered out of the training room and towards their beds by Thorne and Nova, as they tidied up the training room Thorne couldn't help but let out a quiet cheer, for the first time in a long time they'd had a Christmas that just went right, and from the smiles on the faces of their charges the majority of Christmas' in the Guardian Wing had gone just as well.

**A/N: Yes some cliched ideas appearing in terms of the Vaults but it's the best way to do it, and as you can tell it'll lead to some bashing. Keep up the reviews please. TTFN**


	16. Chapter 15: Wizengamot and Wills

**A/N: woot longest chapter so far and I had to curb it a bit. The first section may seem a bit out of place, but I got tired of just having Thorne in his armour without really explaining it, and it worked well enough here. You'll see the other two types of armour more later. Anyway Q&A time.  
**

**to Guest (you know who you are). I realize that I have seem to have (and in some cases have) forgotten plot features, and there will be a series of smaller plots running throughout the whole story, some may get introduced now and won't be solved until the sequel, whilst both the ones you have mentioned will be gotten around to in this book the soul piece will take place during the Easter/Summer break, I need time off of Hogwarts to do it and Christmas was too full already. the Love potions however will linger until fourth year, where an unexpected event will help clear everything up.**

**Anyway, before we attack a certain old fool with way too many names I would like to say that I own nothing except the OC's and the plot.**

**Chapter 15**

_Sunday 26__th__ December 1993_

Thorne got up early, it wasn't odd for him to be up well before the sun rose and this was one of those many occasions. He got up, slowly at least slowly for a Half-Elf who was under a thousand years old, he was only a youngster by Elven standards and yet by human standards he should have been mere dust in the ground, but as a mixture of both races he was middle aged, not expecting to die of old age for another millennia or two yet, but wizened beyond the normal years of existence. Looking around his warrior's instinct naturally kicked in, he couldn't help it so many years of hunting and being hunted did that to anybody no matter what environment you woke up in. Walking into the ensuite bathroom that was attached to his own quarters he splashed water on his face, waking himself up before walking back into the main bedroom area, aiming ot get dressed and worn into the armour he was going to wear today as soon as possible, especially as he hadn't worn it for the better part of three decades.

Thorne looked at the three sets of armour that were placed on the mannequins in front of him. Three sets for three occasions. Looking at the mannequins Thorne couldn't help but chuckle to himself, there above each one was a label saying what occasion it was to be worn for, on the left was 'War' the central one was 'Everyday' and the right one read 'Ceremony'. Thinking through what the day bought for him it was easy to see which he would choose. Knowing that the Wizengamot was impressed by shows of force, or at least they had been last time Thorne had walked among them Thorne took the armour off of the right mannequin, looking it over once before putting it on.

Each of the sets of armour were the same, a brigandine for the torso, a set of greaves for the shins, a pair of Vambraces for the lower arms and a pair of Pauldrons that extended down towards his elbow. Whilst Thorne wore his cloak he had no real need of the last two, and often didn't put them on, but in this case he would.

First, before any armour was put on he put on the underclothing, a dark green T-shirt that's sleeves extended down to his elbows and a pair of trousers of the same colour, going down to his ankles, a pair of thick socks covered his feet and on top of that a pair of thick hiking shoes, the latest addition to the outfit. Next was the Brigandine, the show version was made of gold, Goblin Gold to be precise, forged by the Goblins many years ago it still shone with outstanding beauty in the light, the magic imbued into it during its forging never letting it dim despite the long times that went between Thorne wearing it. Next came the Greaves, these too were made of the same Goblin Gold as the Brigandine, easily attached over the top of the skin-tight trousers. After that came the Pauldrons, these were thinner than normal, meaning that his shoulders didn't 'bulge' out, making sure that no-one expected him to be wearing armour underneath the cloak. For the Wizengamot Thorne decided to forgo the Vambraces, instead putting on a worn pair of bracers, each made of fine leather that had been crafted by the Centaur Herds, however Thorne didn't admire like most would of done, simply because he had worn it so many times.

Looking around Thorne saw the last piece of the set, his old cloak. It had gone through several reincarnations as each one had been worn down by use and incoming projectiles, spells and blades. This cloak was thicker than any of the others had been, the Kevlar underside made certain of that, whilst the cotton side that was exposed to the elements was imbued with a web of various charms and spells, to maintain its integrity and to generally protect Thorne. Putting the cloak on Thorne slipped each arm its sleeve, the Pauldrons sitting comfortably underneath. Reaching behind himself Thorne felt the hood, just checking that it was still there. The very last thing on the set was the belt, this one was empty, with no holsters for the pistols that adorned the other two belts from the other two sets of armour, nor did it hold any of the other pouches that either the 'Everyday' or the 'War' sets of armour held. Looking over his shoulder Thorne looked at the weapons rack on his wall, he'd collect the swords later, but the other weapons could hang there for today, his room was secure enough that they couldn't be stolen, 'minding you' he thought 'I don't think anyone here is exactly well trained with the pistols or with using a Bow besides Nova and I.' smiling to himself Thorne opened the door, heading out into the communal area his room shared with Nova's.

Walking out he saw Nova emerge from her room seconds after him, her armour exactly the same as his, apart from making room for certain female assets, the same golden gleam shone from the reflect candle light that forever lit their communal area. With but a nod the two headed out, so in sync with each other that they hardly needed words at all. Walking straight through the training area they stealthily creeped through the common room, watching the dying embers in the fireplace as they checked that none of their students were awake and out yet.

Once outside the common room they began to jog, taking them down to the ground floor before doing a 'light' session of running going around the castle twice before heading back inside, it wouldn't do to stink up the Wizengamot chambers if they were still sweating. Hydrating themselves they sat back in their communal area, quietly meditating as they let the rest of the world wake up around them.

)))))(((((

It was ten o'clock on the 26th of December 1993, in other words, it was show time. Thorne anxiously paced the small room to the side of the Wizengamot chamber whilst Nova listened in from the door invisibly, waiting for their signal. Behind them were Susan, Harry and Su, although the latter was only there as a bodyguard and wouldn't enter the chamber proper the former two were there to give the Founders titles to Thorne and Nova as proxies.

Eventually Nova heard the cue where Dumbledore, in his role as Chief Warlock called out "And now can any new members to our ranks step forwards please." No-one expected anything as none of the Lords or Ladies had died or retired recently, and as such the whole Wizengamot, all two hundred or so seats were surprised when four hooded figures entered the room, two were obviously armed with weapons on their backs.

"Aye, we as Lords, Ladies and Scions do come to claim our seats and give our proxies" one of the hooded figures, Thorne to be precise spoke.

"Then come forward and be recognized" Dumbledore answered, such formalities had not been used in ages yet every Chief Warlock was taught of them in case.

It was Thorne who stepped forward first. As the Wizengamot seats were made in a giant C shape with the special seats for important Ministry positions and the Chief Warlock in the middle the seats were tiered according to the prestige of the Houses, with the more numerous House seats at the bottom and the Most Ancient and Noble Houses at the back, although the very farthest back seats were empty as tradition normally went. In the centre of the C at the bottom was a circle carved into the stone floor with names etched into positions around it. In front of this was the podium where Lords were normally sworn in and so it came as a surprise when Thorne conveniently skipped the podium and instead sought out one of the names in the circle. Upon finding the one he was looking for Thorne drew one of his swords out of its sheath on his back, eliciting many gasps from the Lords before he struck it down hitting the name square on, what shocked the Wizengamot even more was that the sword did not snap, no instead the name sunk into the ground, sword following it until it was about six inches beneath the surface. It was only then that Thorne spoke again. "I High Lord Thorne Gawainson, head of the Most Ancient and Regal House of Gawain do hereby reclaim my seat forbidden to me five hundred years ago and now reclaimed to do this country justice as my ancestors have always done."

None of the Wizengamot moved, not that they wanted to, here came a man who claimed to be a descendant of one of Arthur's knights, and from the bright light that seemed to be emanating from him, the very magic in the room was accepting him. When the light faded it was Nova who stepped up to the circle, moving around until she found the correct name for her she too drew her sword and struck it into the name, following the same process as Thorne before speaking her piece. "I High Lady Nova Tristan head of the Most Ancient and Regal House of Tristan do hereby reclaim my seat forbidden to me five hundred years ago and now reclaimed to give my strength for this country as my ancestors have always done."

Once again the Wizengamot were frozen in shock, and continued to be as the two withdrew their swords, sheathing them again, before turning and heading up the steps to claim their seats as two of the very top row shone with a white light to show they had been claimed.

It was Dumbledore who was one of the first to regain his composure, although he felt slightly sic knowing exactly who he had teaching History of Magic at his school now, "Yes so, would the two remaining please come and claim their seats or give their proxies."

The two figures nodded before Susan walked up to the podium, dropping her hood she spoke clearly "I Susan Amelia Bones do give –"

"Objection" Amelia Bones called out. "I still hold the Seat for the Most Ancient and Noble House of Bones."

"Ah, that you do but do you hold the other seat as well?" Nova asked speaking up from her high up position."

"Other seat High Lady?" Amelia Bones asked with all the formalities correct.

"Aye, the seat for the Most Ancient and Noble House of Hufflepuff."

"No I do not High Lady" Amelia Bones admitted.

"Then wait for a few moments and let your niece finish what she was saying." Nova replied, nodding to Susan who continued what she had been saying.

"I Susan Amelia Bones do give my seat as Heir to the Most Ancient and Noble House of Hufflepuff to my Magical Guardian Amelia Susan Bones." Susan said, "Until I am of age. As proof of my lineage I show you the Mace of Hufflepuff which only her true heir can wield."

"All votes accepting this Proxy?" Dumbledore asked, before counting the number who raised their hands. "Now all against." Once again he counted the number, "the final count is 300 votes for, 160 against and 40 absentees. The new Proxy for the Hufflepuff seat is Amelia Susan Bones. Now if that is all, my Susan Amelia Bones please leave the chamber and may our next Scion head up to the fron please." Dumbledore desperately hoping that the other hooded person wasn't Harry Potter and as such was dreadfully disappointed when the Boy-Who-Lived lowered his hood and made his way to the front amongst whispers circulating the Wizengamot.

"I Harry James Potter, Scion of House Potter do give my seats as Heirs to the Most Ancient and Noble Houses of Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Potter by birth and Slytherin by Conquest to my Magical Guardian Thorne Gawainson."

"OBJECTION" Dumbledore shouted, which drew many strange looks from the Wizengamot, for it was strange to see the Chief Warlock call for one. "Thorne Gawainson is not you Magical Guardian I am."

"I am sorry to disappoint you here Dumbledore." Thorne said speaking up, "But that is where you are wrong. As of Thursday the 23rd of December 1993 as needed by the alliance between Houses Gryffindor and Gawainson I became Harry James Potter's life guard and as such his Magical Guardian. You can check the records it is set in stone there."

Ten minutes and an unfortunate scribes run to the Department of Records later confirmed what Thorne had said true and allowed for the voting for Harry's proxies. This vote was closer than the other one with it ending 260-200-40. And after a couple of the neutral Lords declaring their sons/daughters/nephews as their new heirs the Wizengamot sat down properly to do business.

"All those who have business to do in the Wizengamot please raise their hands." Dumbledore called out. Looking around the C shape he grudgingly picked Thorne's raised hand, "Aye High Lord Gawainson?"

"Thank you Chief Warlock" Thorne replied, "I would like to bring to question the incorrect Guardianship of one Harry James Potter and illegal voting of the Potter Proxy prior to me taking up the mantle on the 23rd of this month followed by my taking up of his proxy at this meeting."

"On what grounds is this?" Dumbledore asked, dreading what Thorne would say next, but knowing that he had to let Thorne speak else the outcome could be a lot worse.

"Wizengamot, I would like to take into account here that Harry James Potter, despite being a Half-Blood comes from an ancient pureblood line which stretches back farther than most of our lines here today. Now, despite the fact he was bought up in the muggle world he is still a half-blood by birth correct?" general mumbles of agreement were heard throughout the chamber and so Thorne continued. "And yet he was assigned a Magical Guardian much like any other Muggleborn to be one Albus Dumbledore. Indeed as his status allowed he shouldn't have even been placed into the muggle world instead being placed with a pureblood family, most likely with one of you sitting here today." This got more people onto his side as Thorne slowly manipulated them to agree with him. "So, why was he treated like a Muggleborn upon entering this world instead of a Half-Blood like he is? The only person who can answer this was his previous Magical Guardian, one Albus Dumbledore. However Harry Potter has been unaware that he even had a seat on the Wizengamot let alone that he was a Lord of anything, and thereby he would have been unable to give Albus Dumbledore any right to be his proxy." Despite being a bit slow the rest of the Wizengamot could be seen putting one and one together and indeed getting two. "So I have one question to ask you Dumbledore, why were you Mr Potter's Guardian."

"The Will stated-"

"The Will? The Will?" Thorne asked, shaking his head, "So you know what the Will says despite it being sealed on the very night of James and Lily's deaths? And let us factor in just who sealed the Will and we find it was one Albus Dumbledore, so I now ask, why did you read the will and then seal it, did it say something you did not like and thereby ignore it?" Thorne asked, slowly working the Wizengamot against Dumbledore. "I ask, nay demand as Harry Potter's Magical Guardian that you bring the Will into this court and unseal, we can then get Harry back in here and he can read it, like it was meant to be read all those years ago." Thorne could only smile in delight as Dumbledore shrank down into his seat, realizing that three words had practically bought him to his downfall.

"Very Well. I, Albus Dumbledore do unseal the Will of James Charles Potter and Lily Marie Potter for it to be read at Gringotts at Thorne Gawainson's and Harry Potter's discretion."

"Thank you Chief Warlock" Thorne was practically jumping out of his seat with glee at this point, "Now then, as the head of the DMLE is here, Madam Bones, what are the charges for Voting as an Illegal Proxy and Line Theft under Section 2b: Faking a Magical Guardian?"

"They are the loss of the House Seat or position within the Wizengamot for the first crime, and for the second a fine of 500,000 Galleons." Amelia Bones answered.

"Thank you Madam." Thorne answered.

It was now Nova's turn to speak. "Now as Highest ranking Lord or Lady in the Wizengamot I call for a vote to see if we, the Lord's Court wish to convict Albus Dumbledore of these crimes. All for raise you hands." Nova counted before asking "All Against." Counting the raised hands again Nova spoke her results, "The total is 237 for, 220 against with 43 absentees. As the first of these charges can be dealt with in house I ask Albus Dumbledore, do you wish to give up your seat of House Dumbledore or your position as Chief Warlock?"

"I will give up my position as Chief Warlock" Dumbledore replied, bowing his head to Nova, knowing that as the Potter seat had been taken away from him without the Dumbledore seat he would have no position in the Wizengamot and would thereby be unable to hold the title of Chief Warlock either.

"Very well." Nova said in response to Dumbledore. She nodded over to where Fudge sat in the Ministers seat, overlooking the proceedings, for it was he who would now lead the Wizengamot until a new Chief Warlock had been chosen.

Realizing this Fudge jumped out, slightly shocked before speaking. "Ah, yes Lords and Ladies of the Wizengamot, I shall now ask for any suggestions as to who shall take over the seat of Chief Warlock. I must remind you that under the old rules the nominee must have sat in on at least five Wizengamot meetings, so I am afraid that High Lord Thorne and High Lady Nova are unable to make this commitment."

Thorne and Nova both rose and bowed towards Fudge to show that they understood and accepted what the Minister had said. Sitting down they at back and let the rest of the Wizengamot put forward its nominees.

Fifteen minutes of discussions gave Thorne and Nova a very clear image of how the Wizengamot were split up, there were ultimately five groups, one was clearly for the light and stood under the leadership of Dumbledore and Diggory, the second clearly made of the darker families was headed by Malfoy, whilst there were three more neutral or grey groups, one seemed pro-ministry and sat under and sat under the leadership of House Umbridge and House Fudge, the second was made of the more traditionalist purebloods under Greengrass and Nott, whilst the final group seemed to side slightly more with the light and was under the leadership of Bones. Overall though, there were only three candidates put forward, the traditionalists and the ministry groups backing down and looking to support one of the others.

"Right then." Fudge called out under the Sonorus charm "The three nominees are Lord Amos Diggory of the Ancient and Noble House of Diggory, Lord Thomas Avery of the Ancient House of Avery and Madam Augustus Longbottom of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Longbottom." The three nominees stood up, allowing everyone to study them in good detail, although Thorne and Nova were at a disadvantage as they were unable to really tell what each was like and instead decided to go on which group they came out of.

"In front of your seats you will find thee indents into which you can place you wands, each one is labelled with the initials of each one of the nominees, you must now vote which one you want and have two minutes to do so. Begin" Fudge's voice rang throughout the chamber again, before letting the Wizengamot vote for their choice. Once the two minutes were up Fudge revealed the results. "Ok, the total number of votes for Lord Diggory is 173, the total number of votes for Lord Avery is 150 whilst the total number of votes for Madam Longbottom is 177, Thereby the new Chief Warlock is Madam Augusta Longbottom."

After waiting for Madam Longbottom to get to her new seat Thorne then continued with his line of fire, "I believe that now is the time for us to find out exactly what was hidden in the Will of Lord James and Lady Lily Potter." With general murmurs of agreement from around the chamber Thorne nodded to Madam Longbottom who called for the Will to be removed from the Ministry Archives and for Harry to come back into the chamber. The nervousness was clear for any to see on Harry's face, and unfortunately that nervousness was prolonged when the scribe sent for the will came back empty-handed, saying that there was no copy of it in the Ministry Archives. At this more than a few members of the Wizengamot sent stares and glares at a defeated Dumbledore who was now sitting back in his normal seat.

"I believe we shall take an hour recess to wait for the Will to be recovered from Gringotts." Madam Longbottom's voice rang throughout the chamber after a five minute discussion of what to do.

"Ma'am, if I may I do have an option that will shorten the time needed to retrieve the Will, as I could all but assure you that an hour would not be enough time for the Goblins."

"Oh?" Madam Longbottom questioned.

"As both I and my twin are friends of the Goblin nation we could go and retrieve the will for you, of course I would be unallowed due to the fact that I am Harry's proxy, and so if Nova went along with say one Lord or Lady from each of the main parties within the Wizengamot, we would be able to not only pick up the will quicker but also negate any chance of the will being tampered with between Gringotts and this chamber." Thorne explained.

"Very well." Madam Longbottom said, agreeing with Thorne, "I believe that each of the leaders of the parties should go, so Lord Diggory, Lord Malfoy, Lord Greengrass, Madam Bones and Senior Undersecretary Umbridge, if you would accompany High Lady Tristan to Gringotts. Meanwhile we shall have a recess." With that the Wizengamot disbursed, allowing Nova to slip off with he 'escort' whilst Thorne went and talked to Susan, Su and Harry, almost on purpose keeping away from the other members of the Wizengamot as he checked on his students. Even if they did play a game of hide and seek against Dumbldore, whom none of them wanted to speak to at that time.

)))))(((((

It turned out to be only a twenty minute recess, at which point Nova, along with her five 'escortees' marched into the room, it was obvious from the facial expressions that there had been an argument between Nova and Lucius Malfoy, it being even more obvious that Nova had completely wiped the floor with Lucius just added to the smile of several people, Harry included after he thought about the end to his previous year.

Returning to their seats Thorne looked on as Susan and Su moved back outside of the chamber to wait for the session to end, whilst Harry stood in at the podium looking at the Wizengamot seats. Madam Longbottom started the meeting off again before deferring to Nova who stood up, although surprisingly empty handed. "Due to my status as Goblin Friend I was able to set up a meeting quickly enough with the Senior Accounts Manager of the Potter family, however due to my escortees being present at the meeting and some unfavourable words spoken by certain members of the group." At that point she glared at Lord Malfoy, and Thorne along with most of the Wizengamot followed said glare and added their own. "We were unable to gain the Will from the Goblins however we were able to set up a time which should be convienent for all involved in the will to hear it. Unfortunately all monetary values in the Will cannot be passed out at the moment due to a full audit of the Potter accounts locking down all vaults belonging to the Potter family, this is due to suspicion that Albus Dumbledore has been stealing money off of House Potter by being the illegal Magical Guardian, along with potential line theft. This only further adds to the list of crimes committed by Dumbledore against the Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter. The full audit should be completed by late June so all monetary and property aspects of the will can be properly filled out after then, along with providing an ideal date for the trial of Albus Dumbledore."

The last part sent shockwaves around the Wizengamot as the realized just how serious the crimes Dumbledore had potentially committed were. It took Madam Longbottom a couple of minutes to rein in the Wizengamot before asking for any questions from the body. One, from Minister Fudge, was asked straight away. "If the monetary and property aspects of the Will cannot be carried out until early July can we assume that the Will reading will be then?"

"No" Nova replied simply before explaining further "The Will is set to be read on the second Sunday in January, a week after Hogwarts has gone back. This is so that Harry, and any other students mentioned in the Will can leave school whilst not interrupting their lessons. The Reason why it is so soon however is to insure that no-one tries to tamper with it again, if it is read in January then it has for all real purposes been carried out and thereby cannot be changed or contested."

"Can we be told at least who is involved in the Will?" this question came from Madam Longbottom.

"Certainly Ma'am, although you must realize that as this is a Magical Will if any of the persons stated in the Will have died or are unable to receive their part of the Will then it will be passed onto their next in line, or if none are available back to the Potters themselves." With a nod as an answer Nova continued. "The Will is addressed to Sirius Black…"

Nova got no further before Fudge leapt up in outrage. "That man is a wanted criminal he is unable to receive his will so it should thereby go on to his next in line."

"Aah you've been listening to Malfoy, haven't you." Thorne said, standing up next to Nova, "Unfortunately that's where you are wrong Fudge, he is escaped and thereby can come to Gringotts of his free will, also as Gringotts counts as a foreign nation you cannot stop him from attending a Will reading there without making war between the Goblin nation and Britain, and I am certain you don't want that."

Fudge backed down mumbling to himself before allowing Nova to continue. "As I was saying, the Will is also addressed to Remus Lupin, it was addressed to Peter Pettigrew, but with no living relatives his part will go back into the Potter vault, not that it was a lot in the first place apparently. Anyway, it is also addressed to Susan and Amelia Bones, Neville and Augusta Longbottom in place of Frank and Alice Longbottom, Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter, obviously and Thorne Gawainson."

"Me?" Thorne was very confused from his position now sitting next to Nova, "I didn't even know them."

"Still, you are in it so you must attend the Will reading." Nova said calmly. "That is all Chief Warlock."

"Very well." Madam Longbottom said, "Now onto any other business that we might have."

Two hours later Thorne and Nova walked out of the Wizengamot chamber, finally glad to be out of there. Seeing how impatient their students were, and not really looking forward to meeting the rest of the Wizengamot and forming alliances just yet they decided to head back to Hogwarts. It had certainly been an interesting day.

**A/N: not completely happy with the ending, but it works for now. The Will reading will take place a couple of chapters from now, with the next chapter focusing on the Guardians and a new term, which will bring in a much needed canon plot point that I had until now forgotten. **

**Anyway, please keep up the reviews and reading my story, I'm now also trying to take the story off of Thorne and Nova's shoulders and put it on Harry's. Until next time. TBA**


	17. Chapter 16: New Term, New Rules

**A/N: In what is possibly the shortest Hiatus ever I'm back with a new chapter. The prank scene in this chapter replaced the one I was struggling with that may appear in one or two chapters time, it isn't as vital to the story as the prank scene is however and thereby I felt better with removing it than trying to struggle on. Standard Disclaimed and everything, I hope you guys know the drill by now. So without further ado I'll stop my yapping and let the story continue.**

**Chapter 16  
**_5th January 1994_

The rest of the holiday went by somewhat peacefully with a stalemate of sorts existing between Dumbledore and the Guardians, and the former of the two groups often going another way to stop a confrontation with the latter. However all the residents of Hogwarts from the students to the paintings that lined the halls could feel the tension thick in the air, like the humidity an area faces before a fierce tropical storm.

Outside of Hogwarts however things were relatively calm, the only problem being Aurors running up and down the country in search of Sirius Black, although no one in the ministry knew the truth that the wanted man was actually being trained on an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. International relations had been strained since the trial of Sirius Black and were becoming even more so for Britain as they kept requesting aid to hunt for the so-called 'mass murderer' to the point where some countries, mainly those that already held disdain for the British even offered incentive for Sirius Black to stay in their country instead.

Politically eyes turned to Hogwarts, as every Lord and Lady of the Wizengamot asked their children's opinions on the two new members, and said children were asked to discreetly send offers to Thorne and Nova, to entice the two into one or the other of the political camps.

And so it was that the new term rolled upon Hogwarts, with a new year none knew quite what to expect, but whatever was expected of the school and of certain characters inside it carried on and fed into the pages of history.

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"Well I hope that you all had a good holiday, I'm sure those that didn't stay here have been told about what happened here by those who did. If you haven't yet now isn't the time to find out." Thorne said as he talked to the third and fourth year Guardians, Nova was having a similar talk with the first and second years before taking them on a jog around the Black Lake. Thorne however had the more difficult task of fitting his group with ranged weapons. In preparation he'd already put out as many targets as could fit onto the opposite wall to the one which now held the ranged weapons.

"Right, I'm going to call your name out and then get you to try these weapons, I shouldn't need to warn you but these are possibly more dangerous than your melee weapons, don't point any of these at anybody, they can and will kill in one shot if you hit the right place." Thorne gave them the verbal warning, worried about this just as much as anybody would rightfully been. "Right, let's go with Alphabetical, Hannah Abbott."

It took just under half an hour to get all of the Guardians a ranged weapons. "Right, Now we'll spend the rest of this session learning how to use your weapons, although I will warn you again, don't use them until I have shown you, don't assume that just because you've seen me show your friend how to do it you can as well, ranged weapons are a lot more temperamental than melee weapons and I don't want any injuries. Understood?" getting an overall show of agreement Thorne started moving in between the students, one at a time showing them not only how to work the weapon but giving everyone little tips, correcting positions etc.

Walking up to Su Thorne let a smile spread across his lips, "Nova's going to love this" he muttered under his breath before walking up to Su, "Right then, let's show you this." He said, "This is a special bow, it's made of a special wood that isn't found in Wizarding Britain anymore, the bow itself is almost one thousand years old, and only the wood and the magic imbued into it has kept it in this good a shape. Anyway enough about the bow let me show you how to fire it." Picking an arrow out of the quiver Su had picked along with the bow Thorne let the arrow's nock line up on the string, his left hand firmly gripping the main bow underneath where the arrow lined up with the small well worn notch at the centre of the body. Drawing the bow string back until it reached his ear Thorne lined up a shot at the farthest target from where he stood, and in one smooth motion he let the string go, but otherwise remaining stock still, watching with baited breath as the arrow flew straight into the target he aimed at. "See what I did?" he asked Su as he handed the bow back to her.

"Yeah just about" she replied.

"Good, I'll continue on then. Take good care of that bow though, if you don't Nova will be rather annoyed, it was once hers." Thorne walked on, leaving Su stunned in silence before looking back down at the bow once again.

When the session finally ended Thorne wearily sat down on the floor of the training room once the last student had left. Reviewing the session Thorne's mind briefly flicked through who had what weapon. Like Su Harry had a bow, although instead of a Short bow Harry had a Composite Bow, 'which' Thorne thought 'ironically is based off the Chinese design.' Meanwhile Susan had gained a crossbow that she seemed to be rather lethal with, if the first training session said anything. Whilst the majority of weapons chosen were archaic there were half a dozen muskets or similar being used and Jess Urquhart the fourth year had ended up with a modern day rifle.

Looking up Thorne noted Nova opening the door to the training room, slowly walking across it. Getting himself up as she approached her Thorne simply said "You know, I reckon Su's going to do well with your bow."

Nova smiled "So who's got yours then?" she asked in reply.

"Now that's the sad point." Thorne said "No-one." Taking a breath the two stood there before Thorne groaned. "Its Wednesday isn't it."

"Yup" Nova replied, "You know that means we've got more training with the after breakfast." Nova stopped, thinking for a second before she groaned too. "OK, I agree with you here, but we did agree to this." She finally said.

"Yeah, they've got to learn Abilities at some point." Thorne said "So do you think anyone will fully get it?"

"Yeah, I reckon a few of them have the blood in them, although I hope the hat remembered and only gave us descendants, you don't know." Nova replied, in full knowledge that, whilst Humans could learn how to use an Ability only those with Elfen blood in their veins could fully master it. It had been one of the original requirements for being a Guardian, one of the three or four that Thorne and Nova had left out of their original talk on purpose, for if knowledge of their true ancestry came out they feared what would happen.

"Yeah, but I don't think that there were that many elves who mated with humans." Thorne replied, "I don't think every one of the people we've got has the blood, let alone those with siblings that didn't get in."

"Maybe so, but then I knew more Elf maidens than you, and I can say that a few of them liked to go around mortal men."

"Oh" was all Thorne could come up with in reply. "So, anyway what about the training, shall we prepare for it?"

"What you don't want to hear my juicy gossip" Nova joked back, "yeah aright its five hundred years old but a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do."

"Well I do remember Hogwarts having a big kitchen." Thorne replied with a straight face before running away as Nova drew her sword, and mock-chased him the length of the training room.

)))))(((((

"Welcome to you first class where you'll actually be trying to find and use your abilities" Thorne breached the topic as the last of the third years walked into the training room. "Some of you will get it today, others tomorrow, some next month, maybe even next year, and then it will take a few years to master it, if at all." Thorne paced in front of the class. "But do not worry, this is not a test of skill, for it is not only you magical power, but your balance with you core and your ancestry that play important parts in not only finding but mastering your ability. Now your ability will manifest as some sort of charm, hex or spell, it will be one that you naturally feel in touch with, and probably your signature move in a duel or in real life. Now, does anyone think they already have a spell that would work for them?"

After about a minute of silence Hermione raised her hand. "Go on just shout it out Hermione" Thorne called, "we're human, just like you" 'well not really' he finished in his thoughts. "We're not going to eat you if you get it wrong."

"The Bluebell Flames Charm" Hermione replied nervously.

"Alright then." Thorne said, "Let's see it."

Complying Hermione cast the spell, letting the air in front of her fill with blue flames for a second.

"Good." Thorne replied. "Now, I want you to access you core then try and cast the spell again OK?" Hermione nodded, closing her eyes as she found her core before casting the Charm again. This time the flames stayed. "Ok Hermione can you hear my voice?" Thorne asked. Getting a nod in reply Thorne continued. "Right I want you to feel the spell, feel the magic leaving your core and I want you to adapt it, wrap the magic around your body OK?"

Hermione nodded again, complying with Thorne's instructions and heard the gasps coming from the rest of the students as the flames, which had previously just been coming out of her wand in a straight line now wrapped themselves in a thin circle surrounding her body. Opening her eyes to see what it was about Hermione saw the spell stop before feeling a sudden drain on her magical core. Collapsing she was quickly pulled up by Harry and Thorne as they rushed to her side. "Retreat from your core" Thorne urgently whispered in her ear. Once again complying Hermione felt the magical drain stop.

Checking that harry was OK with her Thorne stood up before addressing the students who had formed a circle around them. "Rule one enter your core then start the spell. Rule two, do whatever you want to with the spell. Rule three, exit from your core THEN stop the spell, if you don't follow Rules one or three in the correct order then you'll feel a huge drain on your core that WILL continue until you run out of magic if you don't exit your core immediately." Thorne looked around at the faces all around him, most looked scared although none more so than Hermione who realized just how close she'd been to dying. "Do you understand?" Thorne asked once he's met with everyone's eyes.

"Yes Sir." came the reply.

"Good." Thorne said, "Ok, so who wants to have a go next?" at the silence that followed Thorne sighed. "Ok, I understand you're all scared, but I'll be honest if you can learn this it will be a huge bonus if you're ever involved in a fight." Looking at the silence Thorne continued "Ok, after Hermione's attempt I'll show you how it's done properly, as I've had more practice at this I've mastered the art which means I can keep the spell up and still talk to you guys OK?"

Not wasting any time Thorne made an obvious movement, closing his eyes and bowing his head, showing to the Guardians that he was starting to enter his core, although he didn't need to actually make the movement he did it for their benefit rather than his. Finding his core he raised his head, his right hand twitched as he caught his wand which had fired out of his wrist holder. Casting the _Protego_ spell he opened his eyes as he twisted the dome he had created, making it more visible to everybody in the room, the shield was a translucent forest green colour, it was changing shape at Thorne's whims, growing, shrinking elongating and flattening again to the looks of awe from the students. "You see, when you master the Ability you can do just about anything with the spell, I want you to all cast a spell, any spell at the shield Ok, do it five times, wait five seconds before you cast again and target the same section OK?"

The reply was the first barraged of spells. Feeling where they were Thorne reacted with his shield, breaking up the larger dome, instead focusing shields just on where the students were firing their spells all in the five seconds it took for the students to cast their second wave of spells, the final three barrages all hit the same spot as Thorne had asked for. Once he had felt all the spells go off Thorne reached inside himself, extracting his conscience from his core before turning the spell off. Looking around now with his eyes open Thorne let out a sigh before wiping away the beads of sweat that had started to form on his forehead. "Of course using the Ability is not without consequence" he continued in his teaching mode "Using it for extended periods of time against multiple targets can be very tiring, what I just did then would have killed one of you to try and do the same, but if you master it you could hold for at least three waves if not the five that I did." Thorne looked around before quickly checking the time. "Ok that's almost it for today's session, one last thing I want to mention to you is this. Did anyone notice what I did with the shield after the first wave?"

"You changed it so it only focused on the areas we were firing at." A voice answered

"Aye, I did" Thorne replied "Well done all of you who noticed it. As I said as you learn and master this skill you can change it to do what you will. For example I toughened the shield so it could hold six waves of spells before singling out those areas you targeted, in that way I used up less magic than if I had continued to hold the entire dome, just because you can use magic doesn't mean you must always think inside the box remember that." Thorne stopped for a second before continuing, "Right I'll pack this up for today by telling you about the homework I want you to do. For next week I want you to try and find, out of the Spells, Charms and Hexes you have learnt so far which one you feel most comfortable with, Hermione you've already done this, if you can't find one you truly feel comfortable with don't worry, you're only third or fourth years so you don't know all the spells that are out there. If you can't find your spell by next lesson then I will begin to tutor you in the arts of Occlumency, the art of protecting your mind . To those who do have your spell by next time DON'T try it without either Nova or I present and don't worry you will learn Occlumency at a later point the two are interchangeable as both require you to know your core but neither effect the other." Thorne finished up before calling out to the class, who were still standing around. "Class dismissed."

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The rest of the day was fairly normal for both teachers and students, or rather it was until dinner time at the great hall. Most of the school were already sitting down and starting to eat as Thorne and Nova walked in, it was an almost daily thing for them to turn up late for at least one meal, and when asked why the most they ever gave was a smile and a shrug, occasionally whispering something that was too low for people to hear.

Thorne was the first of the twins to notice that something was wrong, and that was without the sniggering that came from the majority of the school, including Thorne's ears picked up, from the Teachers table. It was only then that Thorne realized what had actually happened. When they had walked through the main doors of the hall they had unknowingly sprung a prank trap. Now, they're cloaks were a rosey pink and their weapons had been changed, for Nova it was into a rose and a cake whilst for him he now carried two daffodils in his scabbards. It was however Nova that surprised the hall with a hearty laugh. "It's been a long time since someone was brave enough to prank us." She laughed, "Of course, we can't let it go without revenge can we brother?"

Thorne caught on. "No we can't can we sister. You know only the House of Gryffindor would be brave enough to try a trick like this."

"Who us…"

"We'd never do such a thing."

The hall laughed as the culprits revealed themselves as the Weasley twins, Thorne looked for a second at each of them looking them up and down, remembering who they were. "Weasley's correct?"

"Fred…" the one on the right said

"…. And George…" the other continued

"At your service." The two finished together bowing.

"Wow they're so identical they don't even know who they are." Nova commented to confused looks. "What, it's obvious that the one on the left is Fred and the other one is George."

"Really…" Fred said

"Are we that easy to tell apart?" George asked.

"Well, it's a twin thing." Thorne replied. "Anyway, I think the school could do with a bit more laughter in it so I Thorne Gawainson"

"And I Nova Tristan" Nova continued "As twins of the Most Ancient and Regal House Gawainson do challenge you Fred and George Weasley, twins of House Weasley to a prank war to last until either side surrenders."

"We accept" the twins replied in unison.

"Well, that's good then." Thorne said. "I can finally cancel these enchantments so we're starting on a fresh page." With a few flicks of his wand and quietly spoken words Thorne and Nova were back to their normal appearance. "Let the pranking begin." Thorne said with a smirk, his wand still in his hand as the Weasley twins walked away. Casting a simple tripping jinx he watched as Fred fell into George sending both of them to the ground. Looking to his side he saw Nova simply raise her eyebrow, shrugging in reply the twins walked to their seats at the Head table, knowing that there wouldn't be a boring day this side of the end of the school year with the prank war rolling on.

)))))(((((

It was later that night that Thorne finally got around to organizing the last part of his plan for Harry. Catching the right person alone had been hard and with everything else going on he had sometimes forgotten to talk to her. However this time luck was at his side, and as he took a seat across the table from Daphne Greengrass she looked up in slight shock. "I haven't done something wrong have I?" she asked curiously, although she was relieved when shook his head.

"No, I simply wish to ask for a favour." He replied. "And as the heiress to one of the few British pureblood families I know I think you should be the perfect person to help."

"And what is this exactly" Daphne asked, slipping back into the ice queen persona she had built up over the first two years, she still had it even though she had let it melt slightly ever since she had joined the Guardians, especially as this place was nowhere near as venomous as the snake pit that Slytherin was.

"Don't worry, it's nothing too personal." Thorne said, "I simply need someone to tutor Harry in the pureblood ways."

"Why don't you do it?" Daphne fired back, slightly suspiscous.

"How many reasons do you want?" Thorne laughed, "I'm five hundred years out of date and that's just to begin with. When I was bought up I was taught how to fight and little else, you however. Well like I said you're the heiress to a prominent pureblood family in Britain, you've been bought up learning how to fight and win on the political battlefield, you know all the tricks a politician can use and how to counter them. Me, I'm blunt and rather unsubtle, if I need to do subtlety, well I have Nova."

"Hmmph, I'll do it." Daphne said, "although I expect something out of it for me."

"Wouldn't have expected you to say anything else." Thorne grinned. "So I'll tell you what, here's the deal, you tutor Harry over politics, I'll give you an automatic O for the History of Magic exam this year."

"Give me extra help with the Ability and you're on." Daphne's family were not only politicians but also businessmen and thus she knew how to barter.

"Deal, although it'll be in a group with Harry, Susan and Su." Thorne replied, reaching out his hand for a handshake, Daphne took it. "Good, now I want you to go through as much as possible with him. He's completely clueless about the Wizarding World, I don't mind how often you do these session but I'll set a minimum of one lesson a week, in a period where you both have a free class of course.

Daphne thought for a second before agreeing. "I'll sort him out for you." She smiled.

Thorne returned the smile before standing up. "Pleasure doing business with you Miss Greengrass, your first tutor class will be this Saturday at 10."

"I don't disappoint." She replied, "until then Professor Gawainson."

**A/N: Easily the hardest chapter I've written so far and probably because it was slightly disjointed. Anyway, thankyou to everyone who's reviewed this and I hope you continue to. As stated in the Author's Note this is replacing I'm also working on Under His Gaze at the moment so I'm going to be a bit slower in updating this whilst I'm working on both. Until Next Time**.


	18. Chapter 17: On Politics and Readings

**A/N:CHAPTER 16 IS UP AS WELL, MAKE SURE YOU'VE READ THAT BEFORE THIS ONE, ELSE SOME PARTS OF THIS CHAPTER WON'T MAKE A LOT OF SENSE!**

**Now that that's out of the way. Hey peoples, took me longer than I wanted to get this chapter up, but I'm satisfied with it as well. Adding a bit of mystery into the mix as well as the base for another one of the pairings I promised a while back. Well I hope you enjoy this chapter and remember besides the OC's and the plot I own nothing.**

**Chapter 17  
**_Friday 14__th__ January 1994_

"Well I see you're coming back for another session Mr Potter." The teenager smiled as she said this, looking around the rest of the Library to see if anyone was paying attention to them. Thankfully no-one was.

"Only because Thorne is forcing me to do this." Harry replied.

"Oh, and not because you actually like this?" Daphne smirked, "Well anyway this time we'll have a proper lesson, last time was me just introducing you to Wizarding etiquette and what we were going to do. This time however we're going to look into your family history, as you need to know of your family and the allies and enemies they have made throughout their history, and whether or not you are going to keep them up."

Harry nodded, "So what can you tell me about my family then Daphne?"

"Well the Wizard's Genealogy book that's available here in the Library." Daphne stopped as she pulled a huge book out from underneath the table. "Tells us that the Potter Family." She flicked to where her first bookmark lay. "Has several alliances, making it a traditional neutral family. It also has only one enemy, with whom they have had a feud going since the early 1600's. The Gryffindor Family has four unsurprising alliances and two slightly more surprising ones, whilst the Ravenclaw Family have six alliances, three of which are generally expected and the Slytherin Family have only three alliances. These three, are similar to three of the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor Families in that they are to the other ones of the Founding four." Daphne let Harry take that bit in before continuing. "All this means for you is that you're triply linked to the Hufflepuff and thereby Bones family so really you and Susan would count as best buddies in the world of politics. Any questions besides those about the other alliances?"

Harry shook his head.

"Good, I hoped not. Now we'll go back in order and work with the three other alliances from Ravenclaw. The first is an interesting one, it's to something called a Most Ancient and Regal House, not that I have any idea what one is, nor I have I met… Would you cut that out, it's not funny" Daphne snapped at Harry who'd been laughing to himself as soon as she'd started saying about it.

"Don't tell me it's to a House called Gawainson is it?" he asked

"Have you looked in here already" Daphne's eyes narrowed, wondering if this was all a waste of time.

"Not exactly." Both heads span around as the voice, and body of Nova appeared out of nowhere, "I figured you'd use that book, so I placed a tracking charm on it and moved invisibly into the library when I knew you were going to have your lesson." Nova stopped talking, taking out her wand before waving it around, removing the tracking charm before setting up some privacy wards. "Now I'm surprised this hasn't trickled down from your father yet Daphne but in the last Wizengamot session two people claimed two of the Most Ancient and Regal House seats, Thorne and I to be precise. A Most Ancient and Regal House is one that is directly related to either one of the Knights of the Round Table or to King Arthur himself, of course the Pendragon line ended centuries ago, but seven lines remain, eight if you include the legacy the Gawainsons have. The Gawainson family, also holds claim to the Tristan seat after a marriage joined the two lines about two hundred years before we were born. "

"Wait, you're part of the Gawainsons?" Daphne said in slight shock.

"Guilty as charged" Nova smiled, "as the eldest child takes up the Gawainson title the second youngest takes up the name Tristan. So I am High Lady Nova Tristan, whilst my brother is High Lord Thorne Gawainson. "

"What about Merlin?" Harry asked "Wouldn't he have had a special title as well?"

"I already mentioned him." Nova said smiling. Looking at the two confused faces she sighed, "I forget your generation still thinks of him as two separate people, when in fact there was only one. For the full name of King Arthur was Arthur Merlin Pendragon, Arthur and Merlin were one and the same, however the magics Merlin performed would have scared the people if their King had performed them so Arthur took up Merlin Emrys as a second identity. You can't mention any of what I've just told you to anyone else however OK? I want an oath on that." Nova's look turned serious, waiting until they'd both given their oaths before she carried on. "Now onto the real reason I came here, the alliance between House Ravenclaw and House Gawainson is also recorded as an alliance between House Gryffindor and House Gawainson, for Rowena and Godric were married and whilst Thorne was Godric's personal guard I was Rowena's. That's the reason why we're allied with those tow house but not Slytherin and Hugglepuff."

"Err thanks" Harry stuttered as Nova went round and took a seat.

"Not a problem, I know more about the alliances and stuff so I'll just sit in on this part of your lesson in case you need any help understanding the alliances." Nova said, sitting down, pulling a small book out of her cloak and enlarging it, before she started to read."

"Ok , now that that's out of the way." Daphne started off a bit shaken from her normal lecturing mode before quickly gaining her confidence and momentum back. "Now, the two other alliances Ravenclaw have…"

The next ten minutes went through the alliances for Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, Nova adding in parts when help was needed in understanding just who it meant, with a couple of the families being completely extinct and an odd loop from one of the Gryffindor alliances that meant Harry was allied with himself.

Daphne smiled to herself as she said the next sentence, "Now onto the Potter alliances and feud." She rubbed her hands, I'll start with the alliances first. You have a total of seven to contend with, the first being with the Blacks, this was set up with a marriage into your family about three generations ago and the old friendship between Sirius Black and your father cemented it, it's mainly a peace treaty between the two families so they don't attack each other as the Potters are normally Grey whilst the Blacks are considered Dark. The next alliance is with the Longbottoms, it's been going since the 1700's and seems to be mutually beneficial, when one needs help the other responds, that sort of thing, the next alliance with the Bones is fairly similar, although it's more recent coming from the 1940's when Grindelwald was out there, this only further cements that you and Susan have to be nice to each other." Daphne looked at Harry, "Getting this so far?"

"Yep." Was Harry's response, he had taken out a small notebook and had been drawing a small mind map to remind himself who he was allied to.

"Good, now the next alliance is one I well know as it's between the Potters and the Greengrass', this one was mainly a business alliance from the 1800's that turned into more of a peace treaty when the two families started having different beliefs around the time of Grindelwald, unlike the blacks this was cemented by a set monetary deposit rather than a marriage, so whoever broke the contract would find half of their Family vault moved to the others'. The next two are fairly standard political alliances, you vote for me I'll vote for you sort of thing with the Warren and Standford families. As they're currently in the same voting block that the Potter's used to be in they're still in effect although these alliances only seemed to hold true for Potter Lords rather than their proxies. The final alliance I am not too sure with as it is to House Peverell, Nova do you have anything to say?"

Nova chuckled, "Yes it's another case of Harry being allied with himself I'm afraid, the Peverell House was close with the Gryffindor line and so when it was passed on to House Potter they allied once again. However the Peverell line all but died out in the early 1900's and as such the last daughter of Peverell married into the Potter line. Unfortunately the Peverell line was a shade of its former glory when it died and as such the most notable thing gained from absorbing that line is the extra Most Ancient and Noble Wizengamot seat."

"How do you know this, you said you were exiled for 500 years." Daphne asked.

"Just because we were exiled doesn't mean we can listen in on what's happening" Nova explained, "It was one of the things I did, I'm much more scholarly than Thorne will ever be and so collecting information is one of the things I specialize in, as is guarding said information."

Nova got up from the table dispelling the privacy wards before starting to walk away. "I'll let you get on with the rest of your lesson, but remember Harry you have quite a bit of Political clout, with five Most Ancient and Noble, three Ancient and Noble and ten House seats to your name, well you do the maths." With that Nova moved out of the library, to let Daphne and Harry carry on in peace.

"If Nova's correct then that means you have 39 votes" Daphne breathed, "That's more than a quarter of the ministry voting block."

"Wow" was all Harry could reply with.

"Indeed, now I need to go over the one family you have a feud with and it'll all be over for today." Daphne said, half dreading the moment.

"Please let it be the Malfoy's" Harry said, hoping it wasn't someone like the Weasley's.

"Unfortunately not I'm afraid." Daphne said, preparing to cover her ears as she turned the book so that Harry could read it. "It's the..."

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The pair were kicked out of the library less than five minutes later, with ten points being deducted for the long list of obscenities that Harry had shouted. The two then walked through the corridors as Daphne quickly explained to Harry the reasons why the feud had gone on before making a quick exit stage left to escape the still erupting volcano that was Harry Potter.

Making her way back to the common room Daphne let out the briefest of yelps as she was pulled into an abandoned classroom, coming face to face with an annoyed Katie Bell, "What exactly did you do to make Harry that angry?" Katie growled out. "Well, I'm waiting."

Daphne's usual mask of confidence and aloofness ha promptly shattered. "I'm t-teaching Harry politics." She started "A-and today we covered his families alliances and feuds, it just turns out that the one feud his family have is with the one family he doesn't _want _to feud with."

Katie relaxed slightly, "You'd better be telling the truth, if you hurt my little brother I'll be getting back at you."

Daphne nodded, before asking "Little brother?"

"The Gryffindor Quidditch team used to be like a family, with Harry being the little brother and me being the bigger sister, it's carried on into our own Quidditch team this year for the two of us." Katie responded, visibly more relaxed.

Daphne nodded again. "I understand. I won't hurt him intentionally I promise."

"Good." With that Katie left the classroom, moving off to find Harry. A minute or two later after composing herself once again Daphne followed.

)))))(((((

_Sunday 16__th__ January 1994_

Thorne, Harry and Nova stood on the steps of Gringotts, the will reading was set to begin in ten minutes however the trio were early just in case. The three of them wore the same attire that they had during the Wizengamot meeting, the gold of Thorne and Nova's armour gleaming in the winter mornings sun as it peaked over the rooftops of Diagon Alley.

"Well, there's no point us just standing here." Thorne summed up before marching through the doorway the other two following behind him. Entering Gringotts without gaping was never a mean feat and even though he'd been there plenty of times before now Harry couldn't help but gaze in awe a little. Harry was dressed in a weird mix of fancy dress robes and a cloak all too similar to the ones that Thorne and Nova wore, although his were adorned with the Potter and Gryffindor crests above his heart and the Slytherin and Ravenclaw crests at an equal level on the other side.

Harry was broken out of his thoughts as he heard Thorne exchange words with one of the bank tellers, waiting as they were then escorted to the Will room where some of the other recipients of his parents will stood around waiting for the reading to start. The first person Harry noticed was Sirius, who looked a lot better than when Harry had last seen him, besides looking at his face in the floo every so often before Christmas. Next to him was a guy dressed in Samurai armour, it was he who Nova moved up to whilst Thorne continued to scan the rest of the room. Harry did so too as he walked over to Sirius, noting Dumbledore standing off in one corner, Remus Lupin leaning against the wall near to Sirius and the samurai, it was obvious they'd been talking before Harry had come in. The other four beneficiaries were talking to each other in the centre of the room. Thorne had offered to bring Neville and Susan with him to the elder Longbottoms and Bones however the offer had been rescinded as both wanted to talk to their charges before the reading.

Sirius moved over and hugged Harry, "Heya pup, it's been a while" he said after releasing Harry from the hug.

"Hey Sirius" Harry replied, "How's it all going?"

"Not too bad, old Minamoto over there" Sirius pointed at the Samurai who was in a deep conversation with Nova "he's a real pain but I've never felt quite this good before, the training's done my body and magic wonders especially after Azkaban."

"That's good." Harry smiled, not able to get out any more as a Goblin walked in, making nine chairs appear in the centre of the room as he did so. "Will all retainers and bodyguard please step out of the room." The Goblin formally stated, and Nova along with Minamoto nodded, before taking their conversation outside.

Once everyone had taken the initiative and sat down the Goblin produced an envelope and undid it, taking a single piece of parchment out as he did so. "Now, we are here for the Will Reading of James and Lily Potter." He said before clearing his throat, "Any contesting of the Will or any of its parts must be done so at the end of this reading, Are we clear?" after everyone had nodded the Goblin cleared his throat before beginning. "We James Charles Potter and Lily Marie Potter being of sound body mind and spirit do hereby declare this our final will and testament, being written on August 13th 1981 and that all other wills and invalid. We also swear that we are solemnly up to no good.

To Peter Pettigrew, you vile and cowardly traitor we leave one Knut and the wish that he dies in hell.

To Sirius Black brother in all but blood, we give 10,000 Galleons despite the fact you do not need it and primary guardianship of our son Harry James Potter.

To Remus Lupin, know that without your 'furry little problem' you would have stood to be the secondary guardian to Harry instead we bequeath to you 50,000 Galleons.

To Frank and Alice Longbottom we bequeath 10,000 Galleons apiece to add to the Longbottom fortune along with secondary guardianship of our son Harry James Potter.

To Amelia Bones we give 10,000 Galleons and tertiary guardianship of our son Harry James Potter

To Susan Bones we merely offer the knowledge that she is the heir of not only House Bones but also House Hufflepuff, we wish she may grow up alongside Harry as he is heir to House's Gryffindor and Ravenclaw as well as Potter, so that when they are older they can shape the world to their choosing.

To Albus Dumbledore we leave 10,000 Galleons on the stipend that he upholds this will to the level best of his ability, and that he specifies that Pettigrew was our secret keeper not Sirius, as he was the one to cast the charm.

To The Guardians, we have heard that another family used to exist that would guard our own with their lives, if you still exist then we give you full permission to exercise your right as our sons Life Guard.

To Harry James Potter we leave the rest of the Potter fortune, and all other items and property attached to it. Live long and prosper Prongslet.

This is the Will of James and Lily Potter. Mischief Managed."

The Goblin slipped the parchment back into the envelope. "Any questions, contentions or anything else that any party in here would like to add. Baring in mind that as this will is being read almost twelve years after it should have done and that Sirius Black was unlawfully sentenced to an extended stay in Azkaban without trial that Albus Dumbledore has not upheld his stipend and will not receive the money. Also note that as the Potter accounts are under a full audit the money won't be added to your vaults until early July."

"Yes." Thorne spoke up. "I have completed the Life Guard ritual and as such taken over from Sirius Black as Harry Potter's primary guardian, this was done on the 23rd of December with Sirius' full permission."

"So noted" the Goblin replied. "Any more?"

With no more comments made the majority of the wizards left the room. Sirius left almost immediately in case the Ministry were going to try any funny business, meeting back up with Minamoto before being taken to a private room so their Portkey back to Guardian Island could go relatively unnoticed. Dumbledore and Lupin left side by side followed a few minutes later by the Longbottoms. Whilst this was happening Susan and Harry started talking, the words of the will still fresh in their mind, whilst Thorne and Amelia Bones started to have a staring contest, the Head of the DMLE obviously wanting to leave Gringotts but not Susan.

Nova walked back into the room, nodding towards the Goblin who still hadn't left. "Greeting heir Bloodjack" she said, smiling as she noticed the sudden change in demeanour the room took on. "It is an honour that your father thought this Will reading was so important.

Bloodjack let out a smile, which looked rather creepy on the Goblins face. "Well done High Lady, I am honoured you remember me, my father has always loved the Potter family, they have always done so much for Gringotts."

"Indeed they have." Nova smiled in return. "Let us not forget the others in the room, I believe a formal introduction should be in order. Madam Bones, this is Bloodjack, heir to Gringotts London, Bloodjack this is Madam Amelia Bones, head of the DMLE in the ministry." The two nodded formally at each other before Amelia made a face, looking at her watch before pronouncing "I must be off I'm afraid, I assume the two of you will be able to get Susan back to school safely enough?"

"Have no fear of that ma'am" Thorne said, "After all we are meant to be guarding her as heir of Hogwarts."

Madam Bones smiled briefly and nodded before walking out.

"Very well then." Thorne sighed after a minute of silence, noting that even Harry and Susan had stopped their conversation. "Let us be off, a pleasure Heir Bloodjack. Do give Ragnok our regards, and a warning that we wish to meet the alliance in early March, about the 24th should do."

Bloodjack nodded. "Is that a wise date to hold it Steward?"

"It will be wise enough" Thorne cut across, "It has been a pleasure." He said once again before heading out.

**A/N: You'll be hearing more about the Pental Alliance soon trust me. Anyway, please review, I like knowing there are people out there enjoying this.  
****So yeah, see you around next time.****  
**


	19. Chapter 18: Calling the Pental Alliance

**A/N: Longest Chapter yet with two scenes deleted from it. But don't worry both will be included in the first spin off, more details at the bottom to prevent spoilers. Anyway Standard Disclaimer, you should know it by now. And enjoy.**

**Chapter 18**

_Wednesday 19__th__ January 1994_

It was for some disappointment and others relief when they found a note pinned up on the training room door that Wednesday. Disappointment for some because they enjoyed the sessions, relief for the others that they got a few hours more in bed, for the note simply read

_Guardians_

_Thorne and I are dealing with some important business this morning. We should be back for the normal teaching sessions throughout the day._

_Nova._

Whilst some pondered on what business it was hardly any of them knew enough about their two professors to hazard a guess, and even the most knowledgeable ones, those being Harry and Su could only guess it was something to do with their previous jobs with one of the many countries they'd worked with before. But as with many guesses they were far from the truth…

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Nova's day had started off earlier than Thorne's, she had after all picked the short straw and had to visit two places as opposed to Thorne's one. Granted the first was right on their doorstep but it was still a good trek through the Forbidden Forest. It was an hour after she had set out and she'd already found two empty camp sites, good signs in the sense that they were still in the forest, bad because each of them were three weeks or more abandoned and from the trails they were going deeper into the forest. Looking ahead Nova spotted a small clearing, and whilst there weren't any signs of a camp in it there was a small patch of mud that, thankfully held some vital clues for her hunt, kneeling down she looked in detail at the hoofprints now stuck in the mud, analyzing them, working out how old they were, what sort of Centaur made them, things like that. This time the signs were good. Even better when a second later Nova's head whipped up, meeting the eyes of a youngish Centaur whose bow was drawn back and aimed at her.

"Mortals should not be in this place." The Centaur growled out, carefully watching Nova, his bow still drawn back and ready to fire.

"I am no mortal" Nova replied, slowly standing up, drawing her sword before throwing it towards the Centaur, watching as it clattered to the ground only a couple of feet away from it. "No mortal would wield a blade made by the Elves."

The Centaur merely nodded before relaxing his bow, putting it back onto his back as he trotted forwards and picked up the blade, studying it intensely, testing it by swinging it through the air before throwing it back to Nova, "Well met Nova Tristan, the stars told of your return, it has been long since the Centaur Herds last heard from you."

"Well met Master Centaur" Nova replied, picking up her blade before sheathing it again. "Thorne and I have returned, thus the next stage has been opened and I must speak with your High Chieftain as to how our two races can serve each other."

"The Centaurs have waited for the day upon which the Elves would return, the High Chieftain remembers you. Come I will take you to our camp." The Centaur bowed, "I am called Firenze in this tongue."

"Well met Firenze then." Nova said, bowing in return, "Lead on and I will follow."

Firenze led Nova through the forest, the two talking of the changes that had been made to the forest in the five hundred years since Nova had last walked the paths through the forest, most of which had been overgrown or deemed too dangerous as Acromantula's and other foul creatures had started to live in the forest, taking away the natural breeding and camping grounds of other creatures like the Centaurs and the Unicorns.

A small while later Nova stood next to Firenze as they entered the camp, it was home to two hundred or so Centaurs that roamed the forest, being the largest of the five tribes of Centaurs that lived Britain it's Chieftain was the head of all Centaurs in Britain, a position that made him equal to Ragnok of the Goblins according to the other sentient races.

Despite the uproar that Firenze had supposedly bought a mortal into their camp Nova's blade soon quelled those down to nought more than whispers, watching as a wielder of an Elven blade walked through the camp to the High Chieftain's tent. Nova walked inside, noting the two Centaur guards that stood just outside the canvas structure who had respectfully moved out of the way. Inside she found a small welcome party, the High Chieftain himself along with the tribes Shaman, the oldest and wisest of the Centaurs in the camp. "Greetings, High Chieftain, Shaman, I come before you today to speak of the next stage." Nova started after she had bowed to both of the Centaurs.

"Greetings Nova Tristan, I am High Chieftain Torain, and this is Shaman Gotane, we welcome you here to speak with us today. The stars told us you would be approaching us soon and we have already been making preparations." The High Chieftain spoke slowly and clearly. "With your appearance I can only assume that the Pental Alliance will meet once again?"

"That is correct" Nova replied, "Thorne has proposed the 24th of the third month as the date to the Goblins, is this agreeable with you?"

"Aye, I will come when you call fellow forest-dweller, the sentient races have left this world alone too long and the stars tell of a great war with many, many losses if we do not interfere." Torain spoke again, "We must be ready and my brothers are already on edge, call us and we shall follow."

"Thank you" Nova replied, "But let it be known that the Guardians have returned, and although Elven blood may run in their veins they are still mortal."

"Some of the elders will not be happy but I will let them know that you vouch for them." Torain answered, nodding in understanding. "How goes it?"

"Well enough, all things considered, although the Headmaster is more of a hindrance than a help we cannot let him loose yet, I fear that doing so would make it worse not better." Nova replied, "If the stars are correct one foe will be bad enough, two will cause irreparable damage."

"Indeed" Gotane spoke for the first time. "But you know your saga Half-Elf, and you know what must happen in the end."

Nova nodded sadly, "Aye I do." She bowed once again. "I has been an honour speaking to you Torain and Gotane, much has changed in this land since our last visit but your race has not. I will contact you again. Unfortunately I need to contact our skyborne sisters still, and time is running out."

"We understand, as before call and we shall answer, the Centaur stand ready Nova Tristan and we will fight by your side when the time comes. Farewell." Torain nodded before Gotane started to chant in the Centaurs natural tongue, a language Nova struggled with. Feeling a moment of light-headedness she looked around to see that Gotane had transported her towards the cloud city of Kor'Wana the seat of power for the Succubi race that floated peacefully in the Bristol Channel. Becoming her Peregrine Falcon animagi form Nova set off.

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Thorne grimaced, although he got on better with the Vampires than Nova, their love of blood still got a bit too much for him at times, including now as he trudged through the bog west of Cork in Southern Ireland. Every so often rotting bodies showed up in his view, past enemies that had been slowly decomposing as stasis charms on them ran out and no-one bothered to renew them. The thick fog that generally encompassed this part of the bog started to fade, a dark shadow of a castle coming into view, built on the only solid bit of land for miles around, or rather it was built on the site of the previous castle that had sunk into the bog, not only leaving plenty of underground passages for the Vampires to live in but also a sturdy enough base for the new castle.

Thorne barely had to touch the gates at the castle entrance before he was challenged by a Vampire, who's sword was already out of its sheath and pointed towards the Half-Elf. "Halt and come no further wizard, leave now and you will not die, continue further and you will become ours forever more."

"Very well Rodriguez" Thorne called out, recognizing the guard. "No wizard will come to this place unless they are under my watch, for I am the Steward, my name is whispered amongst the trees for I have returned I am High Lord Thorne Gawainson and you would not dare risk combat against me for I am last of the elves."

"It is known Thorne Gawainson died during the sieges of Hogwarts" Rodriguez, for that was the vampire's name, responded, "The Elves died on that day and broke the Pental Alliance into four, you have had your chance intruder now die."

Thorne laughed, "You have no idea do you young one. Speak to the Goblins, the Centaurs or your sister's the Succubi, you will find the Elves have returned this day and thus the Pental Alliance has been renewed and will be reforged in the third month of this year, if the Vampires do not stand with us we will stand against them. But beware, attack the last Elven Steward at your own risk, I am Thorne Gawainson and I have not died yet. Beware my swords for they were forged during the time of the founders when you were not yet born never mind turned. Beware Rodriguez, beware." Thorne needed no warning that his words had gone unheeded as he sensed his enemy charge through the fog towards him. Drawing his own two swords Thorne met the charge, counter attacking so the two met in melee, each with something to prove.

The two spun round in close combat, Thorne instantly on the defensive, using both swords to block any one of his opponents attacks, being careful to not draw any blood, for a Vampire's magic relied upon blood to work, theirs or their opponents it didn't matter and so long as Thorne stopped Rodriguez from cutting him he held the advantage.

Seeing an opening Thorne went for it, twirling his sword around so that he knocked Rodriguez out with the pommel of his sword as his other held off the Vampire's blade. In return his opponent went limp for a few seconds before turning into a bat and flying away. Thorne turned into his Golden Eagle animagi form in response and followed the bat onto the roof of the main keep of the castle, and unwillingly into a trap.

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Thorne landed upon the roof of the castle, transforming back to his Half-Elven form, only to see dozens upon dozens of bats circling him, each landing to transform into a Vampire holding a weapon, be it sword, axe or spear, the three weapons that Vampires normally used. Counting near fifty Vampires, Thorne sighed before calling out. "Halt Vampires, tell the Count I merely wish to speak with him, whatever offence the Elves committed can be repaid in peace not war."

One of the Vampires spoke back "Who ever said the Count wants anything to do with this" he spat the word Count out like it was dirt in his mouth. "We serve our Queen now and we will eliminate any returning Elves to keep it that way."

Thorne smiled in response though inside he was fuming "You dare take a Queen without permission? You have split yourselves from the Alliance and have doomed your part of your race to extinction. Tell me that there are those who oppose you and your foolish schemes."

"They are few and led by the old fool Count Isaac" the same voice as before replied. "Now, no more talking. Death to the Elf."

)))))(((((

Nova landed at the cloud city, standing outside its gates, they always seemed pointless to Nova as the Succubi could easily fly over the walls and gates that surrounded each cloud city, as was proven a few moments later when she was welcomed by a Succubus. "Lady, it is glorious to see you again" the winged demon spoke, flying a metre or so in the air in front of her. "we have longed for the return of the Elves especially since the last war down below when our brothers stopped communicating with us."

"The Vampires?" Nova questioned "Why have they not spoken, is the Alliance truly that broken to them."

"We do not know Lady, but I doubt you came here to speak about our brothers, else you would have gone to them instead. Let us head inwards so that you may speak to the Matriarch."

"Indeed" Nova said, following the Succubus over the walls in her Falcon form before turning back again. She looked at the Succubus, as always they were scantily clad, although they never minded and often joked with Nova how she was overdressed, and she wore her cloak, armour and clothes. Nova had always been the twin who spoke to the Succubi as introducing a male Elf, even a Half-Elf like Thorne to the race would probably induce a sex frenzy for the race. Walking alongside the Succubus through the city Nova recognized many of the sites and Succubi, often stopping to greet them. As she did she kept trying to place the guard who was escorting her, knowing her from somewhere but not quite sure where.

As they approached the palace Nova's memory picked up upon her escort. "Well Lady Cynthia it has been an honour to have you escort me this time."

Cynthis let out a light laugh "I was wondering when you would remember Lady Nova, it may have been five hundred years since we last met but I swore your memory would not fade that quickly."

"It hasn't, merely more thoughts have occupied my brain since then." Nova replied, "Thorne and I lead busy lives and the circles we run through are many and varied. Still it has indeed been a long time, I still remember when you were young you were a handful then."

"Aye, and mama, I mean the Matriarch would say I still am." Cynthia laughed again, this time more of a giggle, "It will be interesting to see Thorne again at the next meeting, I dare say that is what this is about"

Nova smiled, the Succubi could seem all knowing but their passive mind reading skills, or mind-skimming as they called it allowed them to read what was on the front of nearby minds. "It is, I suppose you will be there as the Matriarch's second, or just to snag one of the others?"

"Officially the former, although the latter may not be a bad idea." Cynthia smiled, "Thank you for the idea Lady Nova." Looking ahead the pair saw a pair of large doors, guarded by two succubae guards, each wearing some form of armour, although to Nova it was still not enough, tight chest pieces and shin and thigh guards, each were holding a sword that glowed from the metal it was forged from, on their backs the well known golden Succubi longbow that even Nova feared, knowing that their maximum range with such a weapon was well beyond hers when she had wielded a bow. "I will have to announce you formally" Cynthia's words alerted Nova that they had quickly closed the gap between themselves and the door, that and the quick slap that Cynthia's tale had given her.

Nova nodded. "Do you worst" she joked, before mock scowling as Cynthia hit Nova's butt with her tail. "Ok not in that sense" Nova joked again.

Cynthia nodded as the doors opened, the pair walked in, Succubi first then Half-Elf, the room inside was circular, in the centre of it stood a large circular table with five chairs at it, each designed like a throne, and behind there was the throne itself, where the Matriarch, head of the Succubi sat.

"Hail Matriarch, Lady of the Succubi, I bring before you Lady Nova Tristan, representative of the Elves to speak with you today." Cynthia's words rang through the chamber, any other Succubi currently within the chamber stopped what they were doing as they looked between Nova, the table and the Matriarch who had now stood up, walking down towards the table where Nova and Cynthia now stood as well.

"greetings Lady Nova" the Matriarch spoke, "Long has it been since an Elf walked these halls, but it was spoken that a time would come when the Elves would return and the Succubi would busy themselves once again with the world below. Speak your piece we will listen."

"Thank you Matriarch" Nova replied, "I merely come before you today to speak of the future of the Alliance, we have already spoken with the Centaurs and the Goblins, and as I speak my brother is doing the same with the Vampires" Nova noticed the Matriarch's wince as she said 'Vampires' but carried on regardless "On the 24th of March we wish to hold a meeting to renew the alliance. Of course the table will need to be moved" Nova indicated the table that currently stood in the centre of the room. "If of course, you still agree to be part of the alliance."

"We do and we will meet you there." The Matriarch responded, "How will we know where it is though?" It was a valid question that had not been asked by any of the other races, of course the other races were a lot easier to contact.

"Gryffindor Keep will be lived in once again" Nova smiled as she answered, her true home would be found once again and set up as the British base for The Guardians, although reclaiming it may be a hard thing to do Nova had no doubt they'd be able to do it before the meeting date.

"I see" the Matriarch replied. "Now come, you can rest here and tell us tales of your adventures, for surely you have had many since we last talked."

Nova bowed before replying, "I am afraid that is impossible Matriarch Iris" being able to use the Matriarch name in the less formal meeting they now found themselves in. "I have a class of children awaiting me at Hogwarts, and as such I must return."

"Very well" Matriarch Iris replied, "Then let us bid you farewell, and see you again soon."

"Of that you have no doubt farewell." Nova replied, headed out of the palace with both the Matriarch and Cynthia following her, Succubi guards a step or two behind. In the open air outside the palace Nova saluted Iris before turning into her Peregrine form, headed for the ground below.

It was at times like this that Nova disliked her Elven heritage as it meant she could not use 'traditional' methods of Wizarding movement like Apparations and Portkey's instead she was limited to Animagi flying and a form of moving called Spiriting, it was much like apparating apart from the fact that it had to be done from an outside place to another outside place, although separate wards had to be made to block it. As she felt a minute later as she Spirited from Bristol to the grounds of Hogwarts, noting that Breakfast was just ending as her classes were about to begin.

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Thorne let the last of the three dead bats drop from his claws. He'd survived the battle, somehow although he had been cut multiple times during it he had put a shield up that prevented him from being targeted by Blood Magic, the speciality of the Vampires. The three bats he had caught as he flew off had been useful mines of information, as he fiercely used Legilmency to rip through their minds for the information he needed, it had given him the information he needed, including the location of the Vampires loyal to the Count, although it troubled him that they were on the other side of Ireland near the Giant's causeway, it was there he was now headed, having flown across the majority of Ireland as he had taken and dissected the knowledge from the Vampire bats. Landing near enough the location Thorne checked for any muggles, seeing none he transformed back, looking down at himself he sighed as he saw his body had quite a few small cuts, along with a nasty cut on his left arm and something had happened to his right knee as he felt the blood dribbling down the lower part of his leg. Casting the best healing spells he could he quickly patched up what he could, still unable to do anything about either arm or knee.

Looking around Thorne smiled as he saw one large cloud in the otherwise blue sky, the cloud kept in its solitary position and was darker than most rainclouds Thorne had seen, although it did not look like it was actually raining. Limping off Thorne smiled to himself 'well either someone has a major love of clouds or that's where I'll find me some decent Vampires' he smiled at the thought as he approached the now visible castle.

This time when he approached the gate no questions were asked until he knocked upon the two great wooden doors that seemed to be the only entrance into the place. A thin wooden slot was moved to the side and a pair of pupil-less eyes stared out at him. "Who stands here?" the voice attached to the eyes hissed. In response Thorne drew one of his swords holding it up so that its side was in front of the slot before speaking. "Only one being in this world wields a sword like this wouldn't you agree?"

"An Elven blade for an Elven steward." Came the reply. "Maybe you are but how do I know?"

"Know that I swear upon my position as Steward of the Elves that before these gates stands High Lord Thorne Gawainson alone after beating back your traitorous brethren." Thorne swore before the gates, having removed his blade from its position, putting it back in its sheath, staring into the Vampire's eyes undaunted.

"Then enter Steward and friend of the Vampires, the Count will want to speak with you." The huge doors creaked open enough for Thorne to enter, doing so he didn't jump when they slammed shut behind him. Although the shock of three Vampires with blades pointed at him did make him jump. "Peace brothers, I have come here to help with your race's problem, trust me they are shorter two score of their traitorous kind than they were this morning."

"Very well" the lead Vampire nodded, "The Count is waiting." With that Thorne was escorted into the main keep of the Castle, and into the throne room, no announcement needed as the throne room doors already stood wide open, allowing both the Count and Thorne to see each other long before they were in the same room as each other. In front of the throne was a long rectangular table with maps and plans spread out on it, Thorne noted that the throne room must have doubled up as a war room for the loyal Vampires. "Greetings Count Isaac, I see you are having a few problems."

Isaac looked up "Greetings Steward Thorne" he flew across the table and gave the Half-Elf a brief man-hug. "You may just be the answer to my problems; I heard you already found out about our traitorous brothers who took our home?"

"If 'found out about' means killing off about forty of them in battle then yes indeed" Thorne replied. "Although I believe I do have both answers and complications to your problems."

"Oh?"

"Indeed, the Alliance is to meet on the 24th of March…" Thorne began

"And I will need to swear that my entire race will help the others then." Count Isaac finished. "Then we will need to strike quickly. You know I would help you anyway but if you do indeed have more answers to our problems our whole race will owe you a debt."

"Debt's are of little matter to me, that you helped the Guardians would be payment enough, for I fear a war is coming that will involve us." Thorne replied

"Aye, the Dark Lord Voldemort that split us is not yet dead, else the traitors would have a lot less power. But that is not a problem right now as he rests only in spirit form." Isaac spat out the first sentence, obviously livid about it.

"That it is. We have much to discuss it seems" Thorne mused. "Now we have a war to plan…"

**A/N: Yeah the two scenes are the Thorne's battle with the Vampires and the planning session right at the end of the Chapter, they will both be appearing in the first of The Guardians Series. Called A Vampiric Civil War the first chapter will be released soon. Anyway thanks to all the reviewers I hope you keep it up. And in answer to those wondering about just who House Potter are feuding with all I'll say for now is that it's cliche with a twist, the rest will be found out at some point in the near future. **

**The next chapter will bring the action back to Hogwarts. Until then Goodbye.**

**A/N 2: It's me again, I just wanted to add that the Succubi in this story are slightly based off those in TheLastZion's The Return of the Marauders and The Measure of a Man stories, especially with where they live and a couple of names from those stories may accidentally find themselves in this one. Go check him out he's a brilliant fanfic author. **


	20. Chapter 19: Mind Arts and Abilities

**A/N: Hey again, I'm afraid this chapters a bit shorter than the other ones have been recently but they will be getting longer again soon. Thank you to all the reviewers I gained since last time and in answer to Narnia and Harry Potter 4 EVER Thorne and Nova don't own it, it belongs to the Gryffindor Family and it's got some special wards up around it (don't worry it will be explained soon enough). Anyway DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter, I only own my OC's and the plot.**

**Chapter 19**

_Wednesday 19__th__ January 1994_

Nova was nervous. It wasn'tthat she was unable to teach the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff first years it was more that she hadn't heard from her twin brother since they'd set out to contact the other sentient races, and the time they expected to be back by had come and gone, Nova had had the first period off and had anxiously awaited her twin but with no sign and second period bringing a lesson with it she steeled herself to mask her inside worry.

Watching as the First years poured into the classroom Nova took a deep breath before starting the lesson, after doing a headcount to make sure everyone had come in, satisfied she began to talk. "Ok, this lesson we're going to be starting you on a project that we're running throughout the whole school, I'm sure if you've got older siblings you'll have heard them talking about it but for those who don't you needn't worry. The project is thus, we're going to ask you to research your family, be it mundane or magical as far back as you can and I want you to find out about three of your ancestors who have done something out of the ordinary, now it may be for those of you who are of non-magical descent that you're great-grandfathers fought in the liberation of France, possibly on the beaches during D-Day, or it may be that you're ancestors invented some sort of scientific theory. For those on the magical side I expect many will have relatives who fought against Grindelwald or some other Dark Lord, or you may just happen to have the inventor of the Boil cure potion in your family. No matter what and no matter how small it may seem I want you to pick the three most interesting ones to you and research them more thoroughly, you're welcome to use any media you have at your disposal to help study this although mundane born I will be able to retrieve information on your family history for you if need be. Understand?" the class nodded. "Good. Then for the rest of the lesson you can either work in the library or in here, normally Thorne would stay in here to make sure everyone behaves but as he is busy at the moment." Nova looked down at her watch "And more than a bit late I will have to trust those of you who remain in the classroom to work."

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In some ways Thorne's timing couldn't have been better as he staggered into the entrance hall just as Nova uttered those words. Unfortunately for him it was not quite as empty as Thorne would have perhaps liked, as one Albus Dumbledore stood In front of him, a questioning look upon his face.

"Ah, morning headmaster, I don't suppose this could wait until after I've cleaned myself up?" Thorne asked, annoyed that the one person who he didn't want to see was standing right in front of him.

"Don't worry Thorne, I can walk with you up to your quarters, I merely have a few questions for you." Dumbledore replied, not waiting for Thorne to respond as he began to walk beside him. "Now I know you have various contacts and obligations with the ICW and the Japanese it's just that is common courtesy that you tell me where you are going to be if you're missing parts of the school day, even if you are a Professor."

Thorne laughed "You saying Nova isn't good enough to teach History of Magic?"

"You're twisting my words" Dumbledore chuckled in response "I merely mean that you seem to be the leader between the two of you and thereby I assumed you took more of the teacher's role between the pair of you."

Thorne shook his head for a second before responding. "I'll be honest we both take charge dependent on the situation, we can't afford to wait on one another in our line of work. We'll both take charge when we need to."

"I see" Dumbledore nodded before continuing with his original line of questions. "So where were you today if I may ask Thorne?"

"You may." Thorne responded, "All I can tell is that I went to meet with some old friends, I'm afraid I can't reveal too much more as I'm sworn to secrecy, I'm sure you'll understand."

"Yes, that often happens, does it not?" Dumbledore replied, thinking in silence for a few seconds before asking "You are obviously injured, I merely wonder why you won't go to Madam Pomphrey about it?"

Thorne grinned "Nice, very nice" he muttered under his breath before responding properly "You see I got into a bit of a scrap with some of my old friends, we had a bit of an understanding that lead to a fight you see. However I can't reveal what actually wounded me to Madam Pomphrey as it would break the oath of secrecy I am sworn to." Thorne was never happier to see the entrance to the Guardian wing up ahead. "Thank you for walking with me Headmaster, however here we are and I need to get inside. I will inform you that I will be leaving this weekend to teach at the Japanese Samurai Academy." Thorne hurried into the Guardian Wing away from Dumbledore.

Dumbledore sighed as he walked away from the Guardian Wing, couldn't Thorne see that keeping too many secrets was bad for him, and what those secrets could contain could seriously screw up his plans for Harry, and Dumbledore needed to regain as much control over Harry as possible having been bumped out of almost every position of power he held over Harry by the twins, and in less than half a year as well, Dumbledore feared that the pair were truly dark, as he had previously thought. It was only then that a piece of the mystery that were Thorne and Nova fitted into place, as Dumbledore remembered where he had seen the pair before, although it required going back in time through his memories back to the days of Grindelwald and The American Intervention…

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Thorne had noticeably healed as he held the training class for the Guardians, it seemed that over the past week every one of the students had been trying their hardest to find their Ability after Thorne's impressive show at the end of last week's lesson. This time Nova was also in the room, working with one half of the class whilst Thorne worked with the other. The first person he had had was Harry, who'd demonstrated a Patronus that could only be a sure sign that his Ability lay in that area, creating a fully corporeal one with less than a year's work. The next two Guardians, whilst putting up valiant efforts were only capable of changing the power of their particular spell, something that although used a lot by more powerful wizards was no sign that they could use the Ability.

Nova on the other hand had had three success' the first two were Katie and Daphne who had been spending more time together recently, Nova couldn't tell what it was but saw that the two worked well together, especially when they tried their spells, Katie's Aguementi and Daphne's Glacias were definitely their Abilities and with the harmony that they were able to use the two of them in suggested something to Nova, but she was not one to intervene and so left it at that. The next person was Su Li, who only further cemented the idea that Nova and Thorne had had of her being the Battlemaster for the Guardians as Nova worked with her control on Silencio, a spell that worked in perfect harmony with both Nova's disillusionment charm and Thorne's Protégo.

After five more minutes Thorne and Nova had been able to sift through the class, separating those with the Ability from those who didn't, whilst Thorne took the former group in the training room and worked one on one with them Nova took the latter group back into the Guardians common room. Nova looked at the six third years that were now seated before her. "Now, I know it's disappointing that you haven't got an Ability, and whilst I can't say what it feels like I can tell you that this means we'll have time to teach you more advanced magic to counterbalance the gain those with the Ability have." That seemed to brighten up a lot of the room. "However we won't be doing that just yet. As you're all third years now we'll start looking at those branches of advanced magic in your sixth and seventh years, right now however I'm going to start you on Occlumency. Now before we begin do you have any questions?"

"Yes, what sort of advanced magic?"

Nova grinned, she wasn't surprised that Jess Urquhart, the fourth year Slytherin had asked that question, she generally seemed to be quite inquisitive on the whole and was very good at worming information out of people without her targets realizing it. Nova thought for a small while before giving an answer "As we haven't got to decide yet I don't know for certain but I imagine we will generally teach you some of the spells from the DADA, Transfiguration and Charms Masteries, we may also teach you a few spells that Thorne and I have created over the years along with a smattering of different magics that are used by different magical races."

"Such as?" It was Blaise Zabini who asked that question

"The ones we get on well with, Goblins, Centaurs maybe even Vampires as well." Nova replied, wisely leaving Succubi off of the list, knowing that the public opinion of the creatures was never good and the idea of teaching sex magic, for that was the main branch of magic the Succubi used was a bad idea for the school.

"Anyway," Nova decided to get back on track "That can be discussed in a couple of years time, now however I'm going to start to introduce you to the Mind Arts, there are two, Occlumency which is defending your mind and Legilimency which is attacking with your mind. The easiest way to imagine this is to think of the world as a sea and your minds as a ship sailing on that sea. A mind without Occlumency is easy to take, imagine a ship with no guns and unarmed crew-members, whilst a mind with Occlumency increases the defences, the better the Occlumency defending the mind the better defences the ship has. Conversely the better defend a mind or in this example a ship is the better it can attack, for a ship with cannon to defend itself can also attack other ships within range. However the types of attack a ship can use can vary, for example a ship could either attack another with Occlumency but that would merely destroy the ship, and thereby the mind without gaining any information from it, instead the ship would have to use the cannons to cripple the ship and then pull alongside the defending ship and raid the ship itself. This is how most Legilimens attack by plundering your ship, or your mind of your treasures or memories. Of course if the defending mind is better than the one attacking then it can not only throw the attackers back but also counter attack and try and raid the attackers ship. Understand?" Nova asked the six students who nodded. "Good, that's probably the best analogy to use for Occlumency and Legilimency, now however I am going to start you on the road to building your own Occlumency defences."

Nova stopped for a moment, knowing that a couple had been jotting down notes from what she'd been saying whilst it would take others some time to process what she said. It also allowed her time to work out where to go next. "Right, now what is going to happen now is I'm going to show you my Occlumency defences, bear in mind though that these have been in place for a long time now so yours won't be even half as strong as mine, however it should give you a taste of what you can do with them. Normally you'd need Legilimency to go into someone else's mind however what I'm going to do is let you counterattack me, I'll send a very weak probe into each of you, don't worry though, I need to go into your memories for you to sense me at the moment however I'll only look at things from the past year at Hogwarts. Once you feel like you've felt my probe trace it back and you should be able to see my defences." Nova concentrated, sending out a probe into each person, letting them find her easily and tracing her back to her core.

The six students found themselves in a completely different place to the common room they had been sitting in just moments ago, now they were standing on flat grassland before an impressive circular fortress. "Welcome to my mind" Nova appeared in front of them, smiling at the success of her plan "Here is what my mind looks like to those who use Legilimency, your mindset as this is called is either based on land, in the air or on the sea, I don't know how its chosen it just is. Now, let's go inside my fortress." Nova led the six students inside the fortress explaining each part as they went. "First defence, the outer wall, it's a good place to start for anybody with a land based defence, of course my wall has extra defences in and catapults and ballista on the top, along with archers." Nova pointed out everything that was atop the wall, "as memories always take a living form mine take the form of the humans defending this place, to get the memory is simple enough, you merely kill the person, however that is of course rather tough when they're encased in plate armour." Nova smiled. "Any questions so far?"

"What memories are the warriors that an invader has to face?" Blaise asked curiously

"Good question" Nova replied, "I use memories from a battle or fight I've been in, you can use just about anything but the nature of your memory can affect the construct that it's hiding in. Which leads me on to my next defence line." Nova said pointing it out, "In here, called the Lower Ward are all the small unsubstantial memories that don't really mean that much to me, they are the commoners and the merchants that live in this area. Sometimes people get so caught up in these unsubstantial memoires that it gives your defences time to throw them out." Nova pointed to a patrol of soldiers that marched past. "Next." Nova walked on to where another wall faced them. "Is the Inner wall, same defences as the outer one in some ways only more of them, and the gate is harder to get into." Nova pointed out the differences "The Outer gate is literally just that, the Inner gate however is a gate, then a portcullis then another gate, in both of the areas between the portcullis and a gate there are murder holes in the ceiling for whatever to be poured down on an attacker. Remember, much like the memories the only way to expel the attacker is to kill them in here." Walking through the Inner Gate Nova led them into the Upper Ward, "This area hold slightly more important memories like the guards on the Inner Wall hold slightly more important battles. Now the last place in here is the Keep, however due to the complex ward structure only I can enter it but I'll tell you that that's where my most important memories and secrets are and well, if they can get in there they deserve them to be honest." Nova smiled, "now, back to the normal world." And with that she pushed them out of her mind.

The six students felt like they had only just woken up as they took in that they were back in the common room once again.

"Now" Nova's voice bought their attention back to her, even if she did sound too happy for their liking. "We haven't got much time left to day so I'm simply going to talk through some ideas for the beginnings of your Occlumency defences and we'll start working on them next time. But first I want you to each enter your core and look around, see which mindset you have. "

Five minutes later Nova was going over the mindsets that each person had, "Right so Blaise, Ernie, Terry, you three have a land mindset. Think about using either a fortress of some kind like mine or an underground complex or something like that it needs to have inaccessibility as one of its defences, otherwise it'll be easy to get into. Jess, you're the only one with the air mindset so think about using a sky fortress, that's the most common air defence I've seen, but yours allows you a bit more freedom, just remember that an attacker could use any form of flying to get at you. Lisa, Justin you two have the naval mindset, think about the ships I used as an analogy earlier, or once again a floating fortress may work or even an underground city." Nova stopped just before the bell went. "Well I think that's us finished for today we'll go over what you've though of next week, and if it works we'll start to implement it."

**A/N: Well that's another chapter done, thanks for reading it and I hope you review. Next Chapter _should _be out by the end of next week, but with an exam between now and then I can't promise anything. During the summer I hope to be posting a chapter every week or so. Until next time.**

**A/N 2: Thanks to FenixFyre5 who pointed out that I had given Hermione the Ability last time and then had her in the class who weren't able to use it. Needless to say I've changed it now, but thank you once again.**


	21. Chapter 20: Teachings and Revelations

**A/N: Hey, sorry this is slightly late my exam took up more time than I thought it would, anyway that's past me now as is all work for the next three months (which I will try to devote to writing) last time I said I try to post once a week I'm extending that to once every week and a half as I'm having a bit of trouble with some of the scenes I'm writing here. Anyway on with the story, and remember I own nothing bar the plot and any OC's.**

**NOTE: One part of this chapter will be in Japan, it is quite clearly marked Samurai Academy. Unfortunately I don't write or speak Japanese although I do respect the language enough not to try and butcher it with a program like Google Translate. Thereby everything is written in English in that section instead.  
**

**Chapter 20**

_Saturday 22nd January 1994_

Thorne had decided he hated January's. Especially those from the year 1994, so much had happened in the last month that he felt like he'd been doing nothing during the last few years before he'd come to Hogwarts. Now however was time for one of those things that had become a tradition, although breaking tradition in that Nova wouldn't be journeying with him today, One of them had to stay behind with the Guardians, although both twins would have rather taken the lesson Thorne was about to teach at the Samurai Academy any day.

In preparation for the long distance he was going to travel he'd slept earlier in the day so that now at just past ten o clock at night, GMT he was ready to step right into the Japanese morning. This time Thorne was wearing the third of his three combat suits, rather than the 'everyday' and 'special occasion' ones he was wearing the suit designated for one thing only, war. Much like the 'everyday' suit of armour he wore the outer part of each piece of armour was made of animal hide, although this one was made from a now-extinct Dragon once known as the Byzantine Nightfire, it's jet-black hide was amongst the toughest in the world, being able to stand up to more physical punishment than a Ukrainian Ironbelly, although magically it was slightly inferior. The next layer was the same padded armour that the other two suits used however on the inside of the armour was a piece of metal shaped individually for the person, the metal used was a rare one, named Mithrandyl by the Elves, it was the same metal that both Thorne and Nova's weapons were forged out of, tough and durable enough to be nigh on impossible to break, whilst it also contained a secret, whilst Goblin forged weapons and armour could take on the effect of any liquid, solid or gas it came in contact with Mithrandyl could absorb a single spell, and if focused down to a point fire it back again much like a wand, so long as a core lay inside it, otherwise only absorption was possible.

All suited up with his load out of weapons chosen, his normal twin Viking swords and pistols, Thorne checked the time before flooing over to Guardian Manor and from there flooing onto the Samurai Academy Headquarters in Japan…

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Nova sighed as she sat alone at the teachers table. For as long as she could remember the both of them had headed off to Japan to teach at the academy but now the tradition was broken thanks to 'teacher duties' at the school. Looking over her students Nova began to do what both she and Thorne had done for a while now and look for the effects of love potions on the students. By working out who had them regularly, for they knew that one person did thanks to the House Elves, they could prove that when the number of love potions being used increased and when Harry and Hermione started to lean towards Ginny and Ron instead of each other was correlated. Having learnt of Harry's bloodline before they actually arrived at Hogwarts both Nova and Thorne knew of the one blood feud he would be in, but neither could work out why he'd become so friendly with that family. 'minding you' Nova thought as she looked towards the Weasley twins, who looked like they were planning their next prank against the Guardians, 'they're not all bad eggs.' The prank war between the two pairs of twins had slowly been escalating since it had been declared, especially when Thorne and Nova had said to the Weasley's that they wouldn't use any of their powers as teachers for any pranking either side did.

Nova's eyes swept back round the hall to the Guardians table. Letting out a breath she stood up and made her way over there, picking up Harry, Su and Daphne before heading out, Susan having moved over to them from Hufflepuff's table when Nova had started to walk towards them. 'time for some more training' Nova thought as she headed towards the Guardian Wing 'as if we haven't done enough of it already.'

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Samurai Academy

"Right, many of you will have seen me over your years here, and I've been talked about for many more." Thorne started off in front of a class of 20, they were in a large training room with an oval stage where duelling would occur, it was here that Thorne stood whilst the class of Samurai stood below. Several of the higher up graduated Samurai stood around the edge of the room, watching one of the more anticipated lessons on the final year calendar. "Normally you'd see me around with my twin Nova, however this year we're 'required' in England and as such Nova had to stay behind to please an aging bumblebee." The class and samurai laughed, the international reputation of Dumbledore was at a low, as it had been ever since it was realized that he hadn't actually killed Grindelwald. "Still, here I am and you'll still be getting your training lecture. So, I need a volunteer, in fact I'd like the best fighter out of the class." Thorne looked around until one man stood out from the rest. "I am" he said.

"What's your name?" Thorne asked.

"Takoshi." Came the reply.

"Well Takoshi let's see what you can do. Using swords only." Thorne called, inviting Takoshi up onto the stage. "Three second countdown, Minamoto?"

The head Samurai nodded. "3…2…1…Go." The two warriors charged towards each other from opposite ends of the stage, Thorne's dual swords clashing against Takoshi's katana.

Even after only a couple of minutes it was easy to see who held the advantage as Thorne held off Takoshi with one blade at a time, playing around with the Samurai continually. After a few more minutes Thorne moved in for the final blow, using one blade to block Takoshi's katana whilst the other blade was left pointing between two parts of Takoshi's armour a potentially lethal strike if it had been carried through.

The two stepped away from each other, the duel had ended. Thorne bowed to Takoshi before speaking to the class s a whole. "So, what did Takoshi do wrong in that duel?" he asked. Various answers came back.

"He underestimated you"

"He didn't block both your blades"

"He should have let you charge him."

"All very good answers" Thorne responded, "and all correct, one way or another. Now, what did I do wrong?" there were some mumblings but no one said anything out loud. "No-one? Ok, just because I won didn't mean I did nothing wrong, my main mistake, and most would say my worst mistake was that I played with him, honestly I could of finished Takoshi off a lot sooner however I led him on. In a real fight that could have let another opponent sneak in and finish me off." Thorne explained. "Just because you've won doesn't mean you've done everything perfectly, but that's why I'm here today, I'm here to allow you to become better swords masters, to help you gain an edge in using your swords. So each of you from the best to the worst is to come up here and challenge me, I'll take you through your paces and after each battle I will teach you where you went wrong and how to improve yourself. After that I will help any of you who use ranged weapons as well. Ready?" he asked the class who were now a lot more excited than before. "Then let the next challenger come up."

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The class finished about eight hours later, allowing Thorne to meet up with the rest of the chief Samurai, the leaders of potentially the best Wizarding police force in the ICW. There were three other Samurai in the room that Thorne was now resting in.

"Greetings Thorne" Minamoto started, his position as Head Samurai meant he was normally the leader of the meeting. "How go things in England?" the rest of the group let out a snigger that showed the total amount of respect Japan held for England.

"Better than expected" Thorne replied, "The Sentient Races are aware of our return and have welcomed us back, the Ministry seems largely corrupt but there are some sterling parts of it, the leader of the DMLE being one of the few officials who aren't completely corrupt and bought." The Samurai knew of Thorne and Nova's full heritage and whilst not talked about to the students at the academy it was learnt rather quickly once they had graduated.

"So it is true that the leader of their Aurors is a stalwart woman?" Noriko, the third in command and only woman on the board spoke.

"Aye, Amelia Bones is a good woman, and one we believe to be on our side. Her line is descended from Hufflepuff as well which is an added bonus." Thorne confirmed, "Unfortunately we haven't raised contact with the other department so we have no idea if they can still be trusted."

"It is unlikely" Takeru, the final member of the board and second in command of the Samurai spoke. "Even the Unspeakables can be bent to a person's will."

"Perhaps so, perhaps not" Minamoto countered "But I believe we are off topic. The report for the ICW is due this summer, is there a chance that Britain can be pulled out of the cesspit it finds itself in?"

"There is, however it will be a hard road." Thorne said after thinking for a while "Nova and I are on the Wizengamot now and we seem to have every party wanting us to be with them, with a bit of manipulating and luck we should be able to use them to pass a few of our rules, and from there we should be able to at least raise Britains status, even if it is not by a large amount. The only other thing to do is to start a genocide of all the ex-Death Eaters, I do not know what the British were thinking when they let off most of those foul dark wizards."

"None of us do friend." Minamoto shook his head "But maybe that second option has some hope, you do have the diplomatic immunity after all."

"Yes but I don't trust the Ministry enough to keep using it like I would need to." Thorne countered. "Until we recover Gryffindor Keep we do not even have our own stronghold, Dumbledore has too strong a grip on Hogwarts for us to do much, most of the wards are down and to make matters worse it feels like the spirit herself is being repressed."

"Bad tidings indeed." Minamoto rose. "I will let the ICW know, now shall we return to the outside world, I believe you have some things to discuss with your visitor Thorne, and we have some missions to discuss."

"Indeed" Thorne knew that whilst the normal agents of the ICW were from different policing forces around the world almost 70% of them were Japanese Samurai and it was that that let the Head Samurai take a position as one of the five Special Agents of the ICW. Moving towards the Floo room in the Academy Thorne let himself out, travelling to Guardian Island.

**A/N: End of Japanese section.**

)))))(((((

Thorne got out of the Floo on Guardian Island with a bounce in his step. He was relieved to be home again, especially after such a long time at Hogwarts. Almost immediately he was met by Fronce, his personal House Elf. "Greetings Master Thorne, does Hogwarts go well?"

"As well as it could with that bumblebee around" Thorne replied, "Tell me, where is Sirius Black?"

"He is outside Sir. He has spent quite a bit of time around as his Animagus form."

"I see." Thorne nodded, "I'll go find him, it's time he became aware of some more things that this Manor is truly capable of."

"Where shall he be granted access to Sir?" Fronce asked, wondering where the boundaries would now be set.

"I think just the main cave for now." Thorne said after a moment of thought. "I'll go get him now." Nothing more was said as the House Elf popped off to do his duties whilst the Half-Elf walked towards the main door out of the Manor. Opening it Thorne took in the sight, the Manor stood atop the hill that made up the island, whilst three sides of its slopes were grass whilst the other contained a forest filled with different types of trees, even those that were by no means native to the region. The slope that led up to the front door of the Manor slowly banked down to the sea where a wooden dock stood waiting for any boats that would come in, currently nothing was docked there but that wasn't a surprise.

Meanwhile the dog that was Sirius Black was playing around, oblivious to Thorne as he approached until a polite cough alerted the dog to Thorne's presence. Quickly changing back into his human form Sirius stood up. "My saviour and chief torturer, what brings you here?"

Thorne smiled at what Sirius had called him, "It was all your choice Sirius, you can't say that the training isn't doing you good though." Thorne was right Sirius was looking a lot more healthy than he had been the previous October although not every sign that he had been in Azkaban for too long had disappeared as the gaunt almost lifeless look behind the eyes showed. "I'm here to talk about the next part of your training, in a sense at least." Thorne continued "Seeing as you're still a wanted criminal in Britain we couldn't use you in any of our missions unless we're absolutely desperate, however there is a job we need filled that doesn't require you to actually be in Britain with us." Sirius' ears pricked up just like a dogs. "Oh?"

"Come, it's easier if I show you." Thorne responded, walking back towards the Manor. "If you've ever read any mundane comics you'll of seen that our Manor has a lot in similar with the fictional Wayne Manor from Batman."

Sirius nodded, "Don't tell me I'm going to be Alfred?"

Thorne cracked up "No, as much as it'd be funny I think Fronce and Huxon would be annoyed if you took their job. No, instead much like Wayne Manor, Guardian Manor has its own cave system and it's the main cave that we're interested in." By this time they had reached the main staircase in the Manor and the two started to descend down to the first level underground. There stood a thick iron door which opened at Thorne's touch. "Fronce has already added you to the door so you will merely have to touch it to open it, however if someone is with you who isn't on the doors list then it will literally slam into their face." Thorne held the door open as Sirius walked through, the two then walked down a loose set of steps into the cave proper. The cave opened out into a large spherical shape. Sirius could see all the way to the ceiling, electrical lighting hung down to create a secondary ceiling of light about a third of the way down the sphere. As he looked around Sirius was shocked at the amount of technology in the cave, to his left there was a massive computer with three screens set up, each with keyboard and mouse. Above that was a map of the world with various flashing lights on it. Looking around Sirius noted the next bit of cave was bear although ne could sense some sort of magical ward that hid something from him, the next bit around looked like a small armoury combined with a garage, motorcycle parts were scattered around next to parts that belonged on planes and weapons of all sorts.

"Yeah, it has that kind of effect on people." Thorne commented bringing Sirius out of his shock slightly. "It's all been insulated so that you can still work magic around here, in fact some of it is magic." Looking at the map of the world he called out "England." and the map focused on the country, expanding until England filled where the world had been. "World." Thorne called again and it went back to its original form. "See? It's neat isn't it? Anyway, the computer is where you'll be based; you'll even get an official Guardian rank of Operator. Basically you'll be the communication between us on the field and what's happening everywhere else, whilst the Guardians will all have communicators between each other they won't have communicators between them and the local Auror forces their helping. You can also use the map to locate problems or requests for help. I'm afraid I can't explain it that well but I can get in our old Operator, he'll be able to teach you everything about this. I will warn in advance, he's a bit grouchy."

"What's his name?" Sirius asked

"His name is Gary Lancelot. Head of the Ancient and Most Regal House of Lancelot." Thorne responded, causing Sirius to whistle through his teeth. "He doesn't care for titles or anything like that, not that they have stuff like that in Canada anyway." Thorne added on.

"No pressure then?" Sirius joked.

"Nope" Thorne answered more seriously. "Now I can tell your wondering what's behind that ward." Thorne pointed towards the bare bit of cave, where he could see a door in the wall. "You'll find out when it's time, that's all I can say I'm afraid, at least for now." Thorne let a ghostly smile appear on his face. "Now I'm afraid I must get back to Hogwarts, if it is OK with you Harry will stay here over the summer."

"Why are you asking me?" Sirius asked "You're his magical guardian."

"Yes but I'm also less in touch with him, at the most I see him as an apprentice, to you he is a son or as close as. You're better for judging things like this, besides if I could I would gladly give you back the title." Thorne responded.

"It'll do him good I think, better than where he used to stay, and better than anywhere I have in Britain." Sirius nodded, "unless he has anywhere else that he owns."

Thorne thought for a second "He has Gryffindor Keep but that was lost five hundred years ago, although I'm planning on taking him and trying to find it sometime soon. Apart from that unless there's a Potter Manor that's all he has property wise. Besides Hogwarts but that doesn't exactly count."

"No, Potter Manor was destroyed during the war, unless James and Lily decided to rebuild it without any of us knowing, it's possible but unlikely." Sirius hypothesized.

"I'll check with the Goblins, it might be a good birthday present when he reaches his majority anyway." Thorne smiled, "If his parents did have it rebuilt it'd be in need of a good cleaning at best so it wouldn't exactly be liveable in."

"True." Sirius nodded, "anyway I expect Minamoto will be back soon?"

Thorne nodded "Yeah he had a few meetings after I left him but he'll be back soon, what weapon are you using?"

"Claymore" Sirius replied, "Got the old family sword out of Gringotts and its working well enough for me."

"Well Sirius I will see you again, have fun." Thorne winked with the last two words before heading towards the Floo, Hogwarts bound.

**A/N: Yeah a new metal, I know it's unoriginal but I don't particularly care, I think it's properties are original though and I will stress that it is quite breakable (for example throw some basilisk venom at it). I hope everyone enjoyed this and please review. On the talk of reviews Here are some answers...**

**FenixFyre5: Once again thank you for pointing out to me my mistake with Hermione. In Harry's case I believe I did mention, or at least hint at his Ability, if I didn't then it's the Patronus Charm (kind of unsurprisingly really)**

**OK, not so many reviews I needed to answer, but thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. The next chapter _should _ be out by next Wednesday (5th June). Until then...**

**TBA**


	22. Authors Note: The Future of the Story

**Author's Note.**

**Hey guys, after a couple of reviews I've realized that parts of this are badly written and other parts are almost unreadable. Taking this into account I have decided to re-write the Story under the new name The Guardians of Hogwarts: Part 1 which will cover Year 3 and Part 2 will cover year 4. At the moment I was only about three/four chapters away from finishing third year anyway. The new story's prologue should be coming out in the next week or so and whilst some parts of the story will stay the same others are going to be radically changed, plot points are going to be taken out or moved to later on in the story, a lot more time will be spent on character development and more time will be spent seeing things from Harry's POV (including more classes).**

**On a side note I'm also planning on continuing my work on Under his Gaze, I'm just double checking the second chapter so expect to see more of that soon.**

**Until next time**

**The Blazing Auran.**


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